Hexagon Purus has signed a distribution agreement with Hino Motors Sales U.S.A. where Hexagon Purus will produce complete battery electric heavy duty trucks for the U.S. market, distributed exclusively through select qualifying dealers in Hino’s network.
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The vehicles will be based on Hino’s XL 4x2 truck chassis and upfitted with Hexagon Purus’ proprietary zero-emission technology, including battery systems, auxiliary modules, power modules and the vehicle-level software.
The agreement foresees the delivery of up to 10,000 trucks by 2030.
These trucks will be compliant with, amongst other, the Advanced Clean Truck regulation in California, which requires all truck manufacturers and distributors to have an incrementally higher zero-emission vehicle content when selling in California from 2024 onwards.
The potential total value over the course of this agreement could reach approximately USD 2.0 billion (approximately NOK 20 billion).
Hino will also be responsible for after-sales service during the lifetime of this exclusive distribution agreement. Serial production of these electric heavy-duty trucks will commence during the last part of 2024.
This expanded agreement replaces the already announced (11 February 2022) cooperation between Hexagon Purus and Hino to supply battery packs for multiple Hino truck platforms planned for serial production from 2024.
As part of both the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) and the proposed Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) regulations, the truck manufactures and fleet owners are required to have an incrementally higher ZEV content when selling or operating a fleet of trucks in California from 2024 onwards.
The ACT regulation has already been adopted by five other states in the U.S. (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington) and two more states are in the public process required to adopt (Colorado and Main).
The ACT requires amongst other that 5% of all new class 7 and 8 trucks sold in 2024 in California must be ZEV while new additions to fleets of class 7 and 8 trucks operating to and from intermodal seaports and railyards are required to be ZEV from 2024.
The ACT regulation also requires 100% of truck manufacturers’ sales in 2040 to come from ZEVs, putting an effective end to sale of internal combustion engine trucks in California and incentivizes investments into infrastructure and supply chain.
There are approximately 1.8 million commercial trucks operating in California daily across a various set of classes including amongst other 219,000 class 7 and 8 trucks.
According to CARB, the combined effect from the ACT and ACF regulations will lead to approximately 0.5 million ZEVs on the road by 2035 in California, increasing to 1.6 million in 2050. ■