By Kevin Krolicki and Chen Aizhu SINGAPORE - Fully electric refrigerated trucks for delivering food and pharmaceuticals are expected to give a Singapore-based startup the edge to crack intoaFrite Restaurant's Fight for Survival: little Halifax versus Halifax's little Toronto | SaltWireSINGAPORE - Fully electric refrigerated trucks for delivering food and pharmaceuticals are expected to give a Singapore-based startup the edge to crack into the crowded Chinese electric vehicle market.
The constraint has slowed the adoption of pure electric trucks by cold-chain fleet operators, though automakers including Geely and Toyota offer hybrid models and hydrogen-powered trucks as alternatives. The S1 will have an 85 kilowatt-hour battery supplied by China's CATL, the world's largest battery maker, designed to provide 270 km of range when the truck is fully loaded, the company says.
While legacy carmakers need two or three years to develop a new vehicle from scratch, China's EV industry has managed to cut that to between 15 to 18 months, including for the S1, according to Launch Design founder Wang Xun.