Draft:Edison Motors

Edison Motors is a British Columbia based Canadian clean automotive technology company, specializing in diesel-electric plug-in hybrid technology. It produces conversion kits for semi-truck prime-mover tractor units, full-size solid axle drive trucks, and heavy solid-axle pickups; combining a generator with electric drive motors and batteries. The company also makes new-built semi-truck prime mover tractor units using diesel generators with batteries and electric motors based on diesel-electric drive technology. It also does custom conversions. The company was founded on the idea to use train locomotive diesel-electric technology on forestry logging trucks, where climbing mountains empty and coming down fully loaded would make a net-zero energy use, with downhill regen recharing the battery power used to climb, and electric torque would obviate needing a giant diesel engine, diesel generators and large truck diesel tanks would make range a non-issue.

Prototypes[edit]

A 1962 Kenworth needle-nose truck unit was converted to diesel-electric using a 3306 Caterpillar diesel generator, becoming the prototype blue truck called Carl. This became the first semi truck in the world to run on a diesel-electric powertrain, similar to that found on locomotive train engines. It is the initial proof-of-concept engineering prototype.

A custom built, from the frame-on-up concept production working prototype, Topsy, was then built. That shows the anticipated truck design, with prototype production drive train, and all up off-the-shelf components, with prototype frame rails.