Electric vehicle solution provider Motiv Power Systems announced that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has certified its Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) family of products for use in Class 4-7 commercial vehicle applications.
The certification is noteworthy, as it makes Motiv the first Tier 1 supplier of CARB-certified fully-electric stripped chassis. This certification is a major milestone for Motiv as fully-electric EPIC chassis are certified for their entire service life, meaning no emissions testing is required.
For fleet operators, this means no emissions testing fees, no interruptions to operations for testing, and no scheduling of the tests themselves. That translates into more uptime, lower cost, and less effort to manage a fleet of electric vehicles when compared against their internal combustion or even hybrid counterparts.
Prior to this certification, vehicle manufacturers looking to build vehicles on top of a fully-electric chassis like Motiv’s were required to apply for the significant government rebates themselves. With rebates amounting to over $100,000 USD per vehicle in California and New York, the change is significant.
Urvi Nagrani, Director of Business Development for Motiv shared more about the change:
“Prior to the introduction of Motiv’s EPIC chassis, final stage vehicle builders, which comprise the majority of the medium-duty fleet market, couldn’t transition to electric without going through an arduous certification process of their own. With this CARB certification of the entire EPIC chassis family, Motiv is taking that regulatory burden off of builders and owning it ourselves.”
Motiv’s EPIC chassis products are estimated to reduce operating costs by up to 85% and maintenance expenditures like emissions testing by 65% compared to traditional diesel-powered vehicles. These savings don’t come as a result of diminished performance or range, as vehicles built on Motiv’s chassis compete with traditional combustion vehicles in key areas like hill climbing capability and carrying capacity.
“Because California emissions regulations are the most stringent nationwide, they are implemented by twenty other states. This means vehicles built on the EPIC chassis can be deployed anywhere in the U.S., a major plus for fleet programs operating nationally,” said Jim Castelaz, CEO of Motiv Power Systems.
Source: Motiv
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