Assembly of the first five EV work trucks ordered by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is well underway at the Zeus facility in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Unlike their diesel counterparts, these trucks have dramatically fewer parts which simplifies the entire assembly process.

The five trucks are being built from the ground-up, to spec for SMUD. The configurations include: a stake truck, open-body service truck, closed-body service truck with crew cab, dump truck, and box truck.

“We have over 1,000 transportation assets in our fleet and an ambitious goal of 100% zero emissions vehicles and equipment by 2030 and have made good progress on some fronts, like removing the last gasoline-only sedans from our fleet in 2019,” says Paul Lau, CEO and general manager of SMUD. “But it’s been more challenging with a larger medium- and heavy-duty trucks because the electric options are limited.” 

The SMUD trucks are being built on the Zeus Z-19 (Class 5, 19,500-lb GVWR) chassis. The baseline Z-19 offers a standard range of 150 miles. The batteries have an expected life span of approximately 3,000 charging cycles, which should equate to about eight to 10 years. Level 2 and DC fast charging are supported, as well as export power capabilities to suit customer needs.  

The battery system incorporates a battery thermal management system which nominally cools or heats the batteries in extreme environments, to minimize the impact of temperature on battery capacity.