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“Most of the pollution is being done by the trucks that are inside cities because they're idling a lot, they’re back and forth,” Alvarez said. “So we can take care of a big portion of the pollution just by taking care of the trucks that are operating in cities.” Conversions take about a week, but Evolectric’s goal is to get that down to two days. It’s not quite as simple as swapping out an engine for a battery, so Alvarez said they're focusing on perfecting the process, and their conversion kits right now. Then, they can train existing technicians at service centers across the country to become certified in retrofitting. So far the five-year-old company has converted 15 trucks, and they plan to scale up dramatically by 2026.
“It's still very vivid to me today, just the smog,” Alvarez said. “I could even taste it in some cases.”The inside of a truck post-retrofit, including all new touchscreens, backup camera, Apple play, and the gear shift lever replaced with buttons.One challenge to scaling up faster has been that conversions have largely been left out when it comes to state and federal incentives to electrify the trucking industry.
Technician Marlon Guillén tightened bolts for the new inverter he was installing in one of the Isuzus. The Wilmington resident recently graduated from LA Trade Tech College, where he studied diesel engine tech.“So far where we're at, the trade schools don't really teach electric stuff,” Guillén said. “They do teach basic low voltage diagnostics, but when it comes to higher voltage stuff, they don't really teach it.
He wanted to work on diesel big rig trucks. But then he took a course on electric vehicles at LA Trade Tech.He said it’s not too different from working on diesel trucks. There are a lot more wires, and there’s extra expertise needed to work with high voltage parts.“I get to see when we strip a truck down and we build it back up,” Guillén said.