TTSI Plans 100 Zero Emission Truck Purchase

by | Aug 2, 2011

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Trucking firm Total Transportation Services Inc. looks set to buy 100 zero emission trucks for heavy-duty hauling purposes from Vision Motor Corp.

The haulage company signed a letter of intent to purchase the 100 Tyrano hydrogen fuel cell-electric class 8 heavy-duty trucks on July 18. The vehicle is an electric truck with a battery recharged by a hydrogen fuel cell which generates electricity from a reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. There is no combustion and no air pollution. Pure water is the only by-product, Vision says.

An initial trial vehicle was delivered to Total on Friday, July 22. This first truck will perform typical drayage operations, hauling freight containers from port terminals in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to rail yards and other distribution facilities, the companies say. The complete order of 100 vehicles is reliant on the successful trial of the vehicle.

Combined, the full order of trucks will cost the company, headquartered in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., approximately $27,000,000 dollars.

The letter of intent also opens the door for TTSI to purchase an additional three hundred Vision trucks, bringing the total value of a TTSI sales contract to approximately $108 million dollars.

“Up and above the benefit of zero emissions, we at TTSI feel that this fuel format is the only true way to break our dependence on imported fuel. Hydrogen is the most abundant resource on the planet,” says Vic La Rosa, President of Total Transportation Services, Inc.

The delivery of the truck is part of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach’s Technology Advancement Program, designed to encourage the commercialization of clean goods-movement vehicles and equipment. The program, with an annual budget of $1.5 million, put up $425,000 in seed money for the development of the Vision truck, the Los Angelese Times reports.

“Success requires collaboration, and that’s what you see here today between the ports, private industry and government agencies,” said David Arian, vice president of the Los Angeles Harbor Commission. “This is not pie-in-the-sky technology. It’s rubber to the road and we’re moving forward.”

In 2010 it emerged that the Port of Los Angeles was evaluating a lithium-ion battery powered heavy duty electric yard tractor.

The Nautilus XE20 electric yard tractor can tow loads of up to 40 tons at a top speed of 25 miles per hour, according to manufacturer Balqon.

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