Revoy, a new EV unlike anything on the market, hopes to electrify trucking overnight, turning conventional in-use diesel tractors into hybrids achieving more than 30 mpg -- in just five minutes or so.
Here's how it works: Any diesel tractor can pair with the Revoy EV, which itself has an axle and a second fifth wheel. The trailer to be hauled simply hooks to the Revoy unit's fifth wheel, which uses some autonomous technology to reduce the legwork there. The three-part combo then hauls the load, with the Revoy unit providing most of the power to its own axle, and some residual diesel power running the cab electronics.
Revoy bills the EV as a service which is "purely additive," in that carriers don't pay anything up front.
"We offer a really different and much better and easier path for fleets to go electric," said Revoy founder Ian Rust. "We offer a service." Zero money up front for the unit, then: "customers pay us by the mile. It's really more of a fuel product. We charge them for the diesel we save them, altogether with the residual diesel, and our fees that are all inclusive."
The company establishes a baseline fuel mileage for any individual subscriber. "Typically fleets are keeping good track of their mpg, and then we're typically more than halving their diesel usage," said Rust, saving money on the whole.
The Revoy's electric unit has a range of about 250 miles, comparable to the Volvo VNR Electric and other EV offerings. On a 250-mile run, a truck getting 7 mpg might burn 35 gallons of diesel, which we'll say costs $4/gallon or $140. The Revoy EV would cut that in half, approximately, and bill the fleet for a cut of the difference.
Currently, Revoy operates two "swap stations" in Texas and Arkansas, and it has fleet customers whose drivers pull into the station where a Revoy attendant greets them and swaps out the spent battery. Rust said Revoy has stations planned in California and Oregon as well.
