Navistar’s all-electric truck, eStar, is being featured in the GE EV Experience Tour. The nationwide tour is educating different industry segments and stakeholders on the emergence of electric vehicles and the benefits they can provide to businesses, governments and communities. The eStar is among a variety of EV manufacturers showcased during the tour.
“The GE EV Experience Tour is the perfect venue for Navistar to showcase eStar and educate attendees on smart EV options for commercial needs,” says Mark Aubry, vice president of sales and marketing, electric vehicles, Navistar. “Tour visitors will experience eStar’s eye-catching design and driver-friendly features like a 180-degree windshield and easy in-and-out vehicle access.”
Built to handle payloads up to two tons, the eStar medium-duty truck offers features such as a low center of gravity (the battery is between the frame rails, not mounted on top), walk-through cab and a cassette-type battery designed to allow ease of maintenance and around-the-clock operation. With zero tailpipe emissions, each eStar truck potentially can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 10 tons annually. The eStar has a range of up to 100 miles per charge and can be fully charged in six to eight hours.
Each daylong tour stop features presentations by GE and community leaders, workshops to help stakeholders with EV planning, deployment and integration strategies, and test drives. “The tour is an important way for us to engage EV stakeholders nationwide and have a serious dialogue about the economic and environmental advantages of EV deployment,” says Deb Frodl, chief strategy officer for GE Capital Fleet Services.
The tour began in March 2011 and is stopping in six U.S. cities: San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York and Washington, D.C.
