"You can take this truck that you've invested all this money in and it's still in good shape, and you can swap out the powertrain for our powertrain and suddenly you're emissions-compliant," Wright said. The San Jose-based company is generating interest from trucking fleet owners who are scrambling to meet California's increasingly strict emissions standards but don't want to replace the entire vehicle, Wright said. It costs $150,000 to $200,000 to install a Wrightspeed motortrain, while it costs, for example, about $500,000 for a new garbage truck. His company, Wrightspeed, makes electric powertrains that can be installed on commercial trucks, making them more energy-efficient. Now he's targeting trucks that deliver packages, haul trash and make frequent stops on city streets. Wright helped bring electric cars to market when he co-founded Tesla Motors a decade ago. Wrightspeed CEO Ian Wright explains the technology behind a electric-powered engine which will be used for FedEx delivery trucks at the company's headquarters, Thursday, Feb. Its plug-in powertrains feature an electric engine, battery system and on-board power generator that runs on diesel or natural gas and recharges the battery when it gets low. Wright's company is installing its powertrains on 25 FedEx delivery trucks and 17 garbage trucks for the Ratto Group, a Santa Rosa-based waste management company. "If you want to sell a fleet owner an electric truck, you have to convince them that it's better than what they're already using. "It takes a lot of technological ambition to break into such an old and established market," said Mark Duvall, a research director at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. While more consumers are switching to electric cars like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt or Tesla Model S, convincing commercial fleet owners to replace their diesel trucks won't be easy. Wrightspeed is one of a growing number of companies that are trying to transform the market for commercial trucks that consume billions of gallons of fuel while spewing tons of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants. We save a lot on maintenance, and we make the emissions compliance much easier," said Wright, a New Zealand-born engineer who left Tesla when it was still a small startup in 2005. Rather it sells electric powertrains that can be installed on medium-and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, making them cleaner, quieter and more energy-efficient. His latest venture, Wrightspeed, doesn't make the whole truck. Now, the Tesla co-founder wants to electrify noisy, gas-guzzling trucks that deliver packages, haul garbage and make frequent stops on city streets.
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