As co-founder of Thor Trucks, Gio Sordoni is helping make believiers out of skeptics about electric trucks. The North Hollywood startup is currently conducting demonstrations of its electric semi-truck, the ET-One, and Sordoni said there has been a lot of interest every time the vehicle starts up. Truck operators are often skeptical at first because they are not familiar with the technology. Once they get behind the wheel, they are easily converted, he said. “After giving them a quick test drive, they see the initial benefit in terms of noise and power and instant torque,” Sordoni added. “That is always fun to see.” Sordoni and business partner Dakota Semler are self-financing Thor Trucks, currently housed in a building on Vanowen Street in the east San Fernando Valley. There, the pair and their engineering co-workers work on the battery technology, prototyping and making additional demonstration vehicles to go with the one already on the road. The ET-One is rated to carry 80,000 pounds, will have a range of 100 miles from its battery pack and start at a base price of $150,000. A model with a 300-mile range starts at $250,000. Production on the semi-tractor truck is expected to begin next year. What makes Thor’s truck different from competing models in development by companies such as Mack Trucks, Peterbilt Motors Co. and Cummins Inc., is that it is feasible in the short term and does not need years of research and development. The closest competitor would be Tesla Inc., which announced it would produce a semi-truck with a 300-mile and 500-mile range at a cost of $150,000 and $180,000 respectively. Tesla would start production on the truck next year. Also, Sordoni and Semler have a different approach in that they plan to utilize industry partners rather than do everything themselves. “There are plenty of great things that we think the heavy truck world does well, like manufacturing and service,” Sordoni said. Crowded roads Challenges, however, face the young company. Erik Neandross, chief executive of Gladstein, Neandross & Associates, a Los Angeles clean transportation and alternative energy consultancy, said that while battery technology is rapidly improving, and electric engines are much simpler than traditional diesel ones, the industry is not there yet in terms of running a heavy-duty truck during a typical day’s operation. The Thor battery pack was developed in-house, and the company has intellectual property for the batteries it assembles. Originally, the company looked for battery providers but did not find anything well-suited to the demands of commercial trucking, Sordoni said. “Vehicles suited to the commercial trucking industry need to be safe, reliable to reduce downtime, capable of hauling heavy loads, lightweight enough to maximize payload, long-lasting and cost-effective,” he explained. “The Thor battery addresses those needs uniquely well, allowing for long-range, light-weight, safe and affordable vehicles built to last. Neandross does not see universal adoption of electric trucks for long-haul service ever happening, because of how the trucking industry works. While a big operator like UPS has predictable routes that its trucks travel every day, most of the industry “is not as neat and tidy, especially the over-the-road guys,” Neandross said. Companies with large fleets seek standardization. Introduce an electric vehicle into the mix and it creates inefficiencies in fuel, dispatching, maintenance, training and other factors, he added. What is compelling for the over-the-road operators is the potential for 30-percent reduction in trucking-related costs, Neandross said. “People want to see if they can do that,” he added. “That is what all this activity is about.” Predictability in routes is what Thor looks for in fleets it wants to equip, according to Sordoni. “Anything that has a lot of starts and stop and idle time, and relatively short and predictable routes are low-hanging fruit for electric commercial vehicles,” he said. Drayage market Another application for the ET-One is drayage, or the trucking service from an ocean port to a rail ramp, warehouse or other destination. That would include trucks coming and going from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Sordoni said. While there are clearly stated goals and policies in place at both ports to move to zero emission technologies, Neandross stated that there are a number of critical path issues that have to be addressed for this vision to become reality. The port drayage business is dominated by independent owner operators, and there is not a lot of excess cash flow available for trucks that carry a high incremental cost, he said. And while the port drayage truck market is generally a regional haul application that is conducive to short range electric truck operations, independent owner operators tend to fuel their trucks at public fuel stations, thus also raising the question of how and where electric trucks will recharge. “These are all challenging issues that are being addressed so this market can succeed.” Neandross said. Where he thinks electric vehicles will first take hold is with regional haulers and progressive retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. that have deep pockets, corporate sustainability programs, and can enjoy the positive public relations of using zero-emission vehicles. “They are genuinely interested in trying to see if they can save 30 percent on their trucking bill,” Neandross said. “Those kinds of companies can afford to buy a few and try them. Port truck drivers do not have that liberty.”