ArvinMeritor is in the zero-emissions game. The company recently entered into a new alternative-power vehicle development program – based
on an electric drivetrain – with Unicell Ltd., a medium-duty body builder with operations in Toronto and Buffalo, N.Y. The new vehicle will have a GVWR of 16,000 lb and will be equipped with a fully-electric drivetrain. The initial application is for pickup-and-delivery vehicles with a fleet as yet
un-named.

You’ll see it some time next year.

Garrick Hu, vice president of Advanced Engineering for ArvinMeritor’s Commercial Vehicle Systems business unit, says such zero-emissions vehicles will become dominant over the next five to 15 years in urban commercial vehicle applications. The rate of adoption will be largely
dependent on the cost of battery energy storage relative to the cost of fossil fuel, he notes.

On the Unicell vehicles, the new electric drivetrain system will provide the fleet operator with lower energy costs, zero emissions, and operations efficiency. The social benefits include a reduction of more than 80% in ‘well-to-wheels’ greenhouse gas emissions.