Tesla isn’t the only company pursuing the electric
semi-truck industry with limited experience, a Californian startup called Thor
Trucks also wants to get in on the action.
The company is the brainchild of entrepreneur Dakota
Semler and his truck is dubbed the ET-One. Found within Thor Trucks are 18
employees, including the likes of a former Navistar and BYD employee, a senior
mechanical engineer with stints at Boeing and Faraday Future, and an engineer
from green vehicle developer US Hybrid.
Thor claims that the ET-One uses battery packs with
LG Chem cells that are mounted to both sides of the chassis. The truck will
reportedly travel up to 300 miles on a single charge and like the Tesla Semi,
have an 80,000 lbs capacity. A cheaper variant with a 100-mile range is also in
the works.
The design of the ET-One is intriguing to say the
least. Dominating the front-end is a semi-circular grille and a pair of LED
headlights. Inside, there is a rather traditional layout but in the place of
dozens of buttons is a digital gauge cluster and a large central infotainment
screen.
Testing of the Thor ET-One is still underway but the
company wants to make the truck available for demonstration drives in 2018
before commencing production in 2019. Prices for the 100-mile version will
start at roughly US$ 150,000 while the 300-mile version will cost a minimum of US$
250,000, a full US$ 100,000 more than the entry-level Tesla Semi with its
300-mile range.
