Terraline may not be a completely new company, it has been previously known as Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies. The company specializes, or at least it used to, in autonomous commercial vehicle hardware, and it went through a rebranding exercise after its latest round of investments. With its know-how in the component and hardware business, the company felt it had a chance to compete in a very busy, but very lucrative, class 8 truck market. Terraline believes its new truck is exactly what the industry needs and, in theory, they have a couple of interesting points.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first
- the design. If you thought the Tesla Semi looked futuristic, the Tangra LH1
is outright out of this world. It's named after an ancient Bulgarian god and
the company claims it boosts the optimism of the employees. That’s a bit of a
stretch, it’s more likely they realize they have one heck of a mountain to
climb and are just being honest about it. Back to the Tangra LH1. The truck is
designed to remain operational for 10 years and in that time it should cover
over 3 million miles without serious maintenance. That’s twice as good as
traditional class 8 trucks.
The company claims 500+ miles of range from
an unspecified battery pack and towing performance on the same level as diesel
class 8 truck. Active aero is responsible for the apparent best efficiency in
the class and the Tangra LH1 boasts the lowest drag coefficient of any truck
out there. These, for now, are just claims and we’ll have to wait and see the
real numbers. So far so good, an interesting bit is the ability to charge the
truck from the existing infrastructure. That’s where the marketing spill ends
and leaves us hanging for more details. Does it mean it will charge for hours
even on the fastest DC chargers? Will it have some new, magic tech to speed the
charging up?
There has to be a catch, Tesla promised
similar results and capabilities only to keep the details of its battery secret
and leave questions unanswered about its Semi’s real life towing range. So,
what’s the catch here? It’s a whopper. Despite the company claiming the first
truck will be delivered to customers for long term testing this year, you will
never be able to actually buy the Tangra LH1. The company offers a new (not
really) business model of TaaS - Truck as a Service. Haulage companies will
simply hire the Tangra and pay per mile of usage without having to worry about
any other outgoings.
For many companies, this will simplify
their business. Terraline will become the Uber of the trucking industry and in
the process will save the planet - at least that’s the plan. The reality may be
tricky though, with many companies hoping to take advantage of generous EV tax
credits in the US for electric trucks. Many companies prefer having 100%
control over the fleet, including its maintenance - clearly, those companies
are not Terraline’s prospective customers. What about owner operators, the
backbone of the industry? Getting an easy lease on a brand new electric truck
sounds like a dream come true, the Tangra LH1 promises the highest standard
cabin for the driver and with low running costs and nothing to worry about when
it comes to maintenance - it can be tempting. Now, Terraline just needs to
deliver on its promises and that - that is what separates the dreamers from
doers. Time will tell, which category the Terraline falls in.
