A quick upclose look at Peterbilts Gen2 579EV

Hey everybody. CCJ Editor Jason Cannon here with a quick look at Peterbilt second generation battery electric model, 579 EV

Peterbilt battery electric model 579 EV was first available for order in 2020. That was five years ago. Nothing evolves faster than technology, so it was time for an update.

Peterbilt. Second generation electric model 579 gets a lot more range, a brand new electric powertrain, and charging capabilities that slash the amount of time it takes to recharge the batteries.

Building on the diesel model 579 platform, the next generation model 579 EV is aimed at short haul and Drage segments and features three battery capacity options with a maximum range of 200 miles. That's up from 150 miles in the current generation.

The 579 DB has three distinct battery applications. So we have

a two stream where we have batteries on both sides. Then there's a three battery configuration where we add another one under the hood. And then this truck has the four battery configuration where it adds two more. And so all these batteries allow us to go up to 200 miles on the 579 TV.

We're also utilizing our, lithium ion phosphate chemistry. So this was something that we did with our previous generation EVs.

But it's it's the right choice. It's the perfect battery choice for commercial applications.

You can use these vehicles for about ten years or more before you actually need to replace the batteries.

350 kilowatt DC charging system enables charging up to 80% in just over an hour and a half. That's a major improvement over the 150 kilowatt DC system on current generation trucks that can fully recharge the battery in approximately three hours, a three stage regenerative brake helps pump energy back into the lithium ion phosphate batteries while underway.

Safety enhancements for the new model include a new electronic parking brake and now standard Bendix Fusion Stop and Auto Go advance, which uses a new forward facing camera and upgraded software to enhance collision mitigation for both moving and stationary vehicles.

It also features automatic headlight brightness adjustment.

So the 579 EV, this is on our current 579 platform. And it gets the latest in, safety and technology and efficiency.

This one you can see has chassis fairings. So now you can get chassis fairings.

It also has the great lighting, the best in class lighting package that the 579 has. So it has standard LED headlamps. Very bright, very powerful.

It also has our combination cornering fog and driving lights right there below. So you can get those as well. It also comes with Fusion Stop and Auto go advanced as standard.

And a couple of great features about that fusion level is it has pedestrian detection automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. Right. So very safe. And then it also has automatic high beams. So like a high end car if you're just driving in the night and no one's around it'll automatically turn on your high beams for for better illumination when it sees an oncoming vehicle.

Then it switches back to low beams, not to point that vehicle. So on the outside and the inside, you'll notice some unique features available only on the 579 EV

So another great thing about this vehicle is it has a, a unique interior. So it's iconic platinum gray interior has some special gray stitching as well as laser etched trim panels. It's a very future forward.

Very unique. So that when a customer gets this vehicle, they know that they're driving an EV.

Leverages the same great ergonomics as our 579, but they know they're driving it. This one also utilizes our smart display. So it's got, our 13 inch digital display. That's a

it's a connectivity hub and infotainment hub. It'll, you know, do Apple CarPlay. It'll do like your Am, FM stereo, everything like that. Take calls. You can see your contacts there.

And so this is great. We also did some changes to our 15 inch digital driver display. That's a great system in our diesel 579.

But it has some unique attributes. Just for the electric vehicle.

It has a power region gauge that kind of goes back and forth to show whether you're putting power back into the batteries or you're utilizing the power of the batteries to go forward.

It also has some great insights about energy efficiency and estimated range. So those are good things as well.

So we have a unique crown and grille here. It has these splayed bars with blue accents as well as a unique, an EV unique, grille pattern.

They're trying to distinguish it. It also has these matching, side panels on the side of the hood.

Right. And has this EV unique pattern as well as as blue trim. There.

The 579 EV is powered by an all new Paccar electric powertrain. This drive line uses a mid-mounted E-motor with dual electric motors and an integrated three speed transmission, and multiple power options are available. Up to 650 horsepower and 18 50ft pounds of torque.

One of the things that we had with our previous generation EVs is we were limited on wheelbase.

So this is actually uses a centrally driven motor. So there's a motor where the transmission would be on a diesel truck. And that motor has everything packaged into it to drive the truck. It has three forward gears, has one reverse gear, has an inverter. And so what that allows us to do, instead of utilizing an E axle is we can use utilize our conventional driveline.

If we do that then we can run all the with the suspensions that we need. We can run all all the rear axles that customers want. And so it gives us a lot more flexibility. So we utilize that architecture.

You can have this in any wheelbase. It goes up to 82,000 pounds gross combined weight. One of the cool things about the E-motor is that it has an incline ometer.

It has a couple of motors. So it goes into first gear if it's heavily loaded or if it's on a hill. Otherwise it starts off in second gear and then just goes to third gear for efficient cruising. So some really good technology to help our customers be as efficient as possible. Also, you know, it can be fully loaded and easily pull away from a stop on a hill.

So great performance. Even better than diesel in some applications.