Coach and bus manufacturer Irizar is entering the HGV market with its battery-electric Ie truck, a 6x2 rigid that can be specified with a CNG range extender.
The Ie truck will be built at the Irizar e-mobility factory in Aduna, Spain. It will be offered in right-hand-drive form if demand dictates.
Irizar is initially targeting municipal uses, but the range-extended version will suit longer distance work, it said.
The Ie truck has single-step entry via a bus-style powered in-swinging door, and cross-cab access is helped by twin tip-up passenger seats. Irizar claimed the Ie truck has a lower step height than any of its competitors.
Batteries, which are supplied in a modular format of 75kW/h increments, do not intrude on the area above the chassis, and Irizar said the 26-tonner can carry a combined body and payload of 18-tonnes.
The electric driveline is shared with Irizar’s bus range. It uses a motor supplied by Irizar Group subsidiary Alconza, and the batteries are created at the Aduna factory from individual Toshiba-supplied cells.
The range extender, where specified, is an Iveco Cursor 8 CNG engine. Plug-in charging is fitted to Irizar’s prototype and the manufacturer may also offer pantograph-based opportunity charging.
Production is scheduled to start in 2019.
