While new electric passenger vehicles command most of the industry attention, SEA Electric has developed products to electrify commercial trucks and buses that meet the specific needs of fleet customers.

Their power systems can be applied to most commercial truck and bus models, saving money for fleets pursuing electrification while helping them meet the goals of zero emissions.

Instead of building a new electric truck from scratch, SEA Electric specializes in the more direct and affordable alternative of providing efficient power-systems for electric trucks and buses while partnering with the OEMs. Its patented, proprietary SEA-Drive power-systems allow fleet customers the flexibility to convert most makes and models of commercial OEM trucks.

Lower-Cost EV Power

SEA Electric enables the customer to power new vehicles as well as repower existing vehicles, creating the ability to achieve electrification faster, especially during the current chassis and chip shortage worldwide.

Repowering meets the demand of a somewhat overlooked industry niche that prefers a specific or customized version of an EV without having to pay the higher prices of a full-on new electric vehicle. Electrifying a commercial truck by dropping an electric power system into the chassis is far less costly than buying an electric truck.

To accommodate the Class 3-7 trucks that comprise most of its market, the company offers four key patented proprietary power drive systems (branded as SEA-Drive 70,100, 120, and 180) that can be adapted to and assembled within a variety of truck sizes and weights.

SEA Electric estimates its power system can decrease total cost of ownership (TCO) by 50% over 10 years. When considering the price differential between electric and conventional chassis, the payback period is 1.6 years for one large fleet customer, with no incentives.

During a recent interview and tour of its California-based North American headquarters in Torrance, President of the Americas Mike Menyhart explained how SEA Electric applies scalable, proven solutions for the Class 3-7 truck range, where the company forecasts the most robust growth. SEA also can repower and convert existing trucks, which some clients prefer based on overall value and cost savings.

“There are many different types of trucks we can power, which allows us to electrify entire fleets for our customers across a diverse set of applications across multiple OEMs,” Menyhart said. “Our solution is highly modular, easily assembled, and powered by our differentiated proprietary software.”

To drive efficiencies in the supply chain, SEA uses the same power steering, braking, A/C and instrument cluster, and varies battery size depending on the use case. This reduces total cost of ownership for a wide variety of trucks.

SEA relies on assembly partners to scale its productivity and meet the growing demands for electric fleets in the delivery vehicle and school bus industries. The company now has an estimated backlog of about 600 orders. Two-thirds of the growth is coming from the U.S. Since 2017, it has put 200 vehicles on the road in six countries across four continents. That has generated 1 million+ miles of telematics data.

Fleet Options

Fleet companies often work on tight margins, so electrification has to fit within the economics of their business, Menyhart said. As battery prices continue to decline, electric options will become more competitive and feasible. Fleets and OEMs are looking to partner with SEA Electric, which has electric solutions that can accommodate multiple makes, models, and brands.

“Large fleet operators spend a lot of design time and money to develop how the truck is configured to support their drivers,” Menyhart said. “A lot of companies like the fact we play well within the ecosystem of OEMs they are familiar with. We don’t have to disrupt what is working for them today to work with us.”

For example, SEA will take a semi-knockdown cab kit from a manufacturer such as Hino and provide a fully assembled power-system to fit the chassis for electrification.

“We will continue to use upfitters to scale our business,” he said. “When we have strategic clients where we expect high volumes, we will build our own assembly facilities to support growth and drive efficiencies. Their products can roll off the assembly line right into ours for electrification.”

Among the companies using e-platforms from SEA Electric are FedEx Ground, UPS, and Woolworth’s in Australia.

School Bus Potential

One market with potential for SEA are school bus fleets, said Menyhart, adding a school bus is built on the type of medium-duty truck the company knows how to power.

With the average electric school bus costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, SEA Electric plans to pursue the market for powering new and existing buses from established OEMs, Menyhart said.

Recycling school buses into electric versions creates a viable, cleaner, and more reliable secondary market for them, while sparing the carbon emissions of older, used ICE and diesel school buses that may not always be kept up to standards, said Menyhart, citing the World Health Organization’s labeling of diesel as a carcinogen.

Continue reading the full article – including sections entitled “Power Systems“, “Reducing Range & Repair Anxieties“, and “Telematics Enhance EV Usage” – at ChargedFleet by Martin Romjue published on August 2, 2021.

It looks like there is going to be an Australian electric truck on the road in the coming years. PowerTorque talks to the team behind one of the early contenders in the electric race, SEA Electric, which now has an Australian electric truck on the road.

One of the aspects of technological change is the way some people are early adopters and others are much more skeptical about anything new. It is the same with the manufacturers of new technologies, some take their time to build up to any new releases, while other smaller enterprises are lighter on their feet and able to come to market earlier.

This is the case with SEA Electric, who have been at the leading edge of the transition across to battery electric, and have created a great deal of interest across the Pacific in the USA, where the whole subject of electric powertrains is much more advanced than here in Australia.

Glen Walker is the Vice President Asia Pacific at Sea Electric, coming from a long experience working in a number of different aspects of the truck and trucking industry. He has been with SEA Electric for two years.

“In Australia, we are now an original equipment manufacturer,” says Glen. “We have our own compliance plate and our own brand, a national dealer network, our own pricing and sales and service. We have become a truck company.

“The company is putting a lot of energy and resources into the United States at the moment. The opportunities there, with a supportive political environment, are profound. Whatever Australia is, the US is 10 to 15 times larger.”

Here in Australia, SEA now have five models available built on two different platforms. The 300 Series vehicles from 4.5 to 8.5 tonnes are joined by the 500 Series vehicles which are available from 14.5 tonnes all the way up to 22.5 tonnes. They are either two or three axle rigids.

In this range, SEA has five different battery sizes and five different electric motors. These can be mixed and matched to suit the specification required. It depends on what the customer is looking for, in terms of short range or long-range, high torque or low torque. They can be adapted to suit customer requirements.

The national dealer network includes 12 different companies trading in 19 different locations. SEA now has an outlet in every capital city and in a selection of major regional cities.

“For the first time, we have a national sales, service and support network behind our product,” says Glen. “We have tried to normalise the process of sales and support and follow a tried and tested service regime for a truck bought through dealerships.”

The trucks are based on the Hino cab and chassis, meaning that many of the parts required across these dealerships will be available out of the Hino spare parts system. Dealerships who will be offering SEA models are already part of the Hino dealership group.

“We have been taking a softly, softly approach in our branding at these dealerships and there are unlikely to be large signs with SEA electric,” says Glen. “That may come, but at the moment we believe that a soft sell is going to be an important part of our development. These are products which need an understanding of the freight task and the suitability of these vehicles to a particular client.

“At the moment we are in discussions with a number of the major fleets and we are finding there is a sweet spot with first mile applications like waste. There is also a sweet spot in the last mile sector, with parcel delivery, food delivery etc. Within those large fleets they often have a broad portfolio of applications and there is always a vehicle within our range which will suit some of those applications.

“The other area which is proving fruitful for us, is municipalities and city councils. Trucks are domiciled at one place and they generally have a small geography that they look after. It’s an ideal application for our technology.”

Read the full article at Power Torque published on July 22, 2021.

SEA Electric Holdings Pty Ltd., a new kid on the local EV block, is considering going public to accelerate its growth trajectory.

“It all depends on the market conditions and our needs — we’ve got plenty of capital for the next 12 months, and we’re really focused on growth, and if the right opportunity presents itself, we will go for it,” said Mike Menyhart who joined SEA Electric as president for the Americas region in April.

The cash reserves Menyhart referred to include $42 million raised in April by SEA Electric, which makes electric power systems for commercial trucks and vans.

The funding round, which included Canadian electric motor company Exro Technologies Inc., brings SEA Electric’s total raised to date to about $75 million. The funds were earmarked for financing its backlog and facilitating more pilot programs with major truck fleet operators.

“We had eight institutional investors join our latest round, and we’re actually looking at bringing on a few more strategic investors as we prepare ourselves for the next phase of our growth,” he said.

SEA Electric, founded by Tony Fairweather in 2012, moved from Australia to Torrance in January 2020. It also opened an innovation center in Des Moines, Iowa, and plans to set up offices in Chicago, New York and Miami this year. The company has about 100 employees, with half of them working stateside.

“We knew we always wanted to go to the U.S. because they were one of the more progressive adopters (of EV technology) as well as the sheer size of the market and the opportunity,” Menyhart said.

“We purposely picked Torrance because it has become the U.S. EV capital … per se, and there would be access to talent and the right ecosystem to build the company,” he added.

The company packed its bags for the United States when the price of batteries powering its systems dropped below the $300-per-kilowatt threshold.

“We knew we would have a product that would be differentiated in the marketplace and proven and that we would be ready to compete in the U.S. marketplace,” he said.

About two-thirds of SEA Electric’s revenue comes from contracts with original equipment manufacturers — Isuzu Australia, Toyota Indonesia, Volvo Trucks, Ford Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. — who use its proprietary “SEA-Drive” systems to electrify their medium-duty trucks and vans.

The rest of the company’s revenue comes from electrifying used combustion-engine trucks and school buses.

“A lot of the costs associated with going electric in the school bus area is extremely significant when buying all new buses,” Menyhart said.

As an alternative to scrapping diesel-powered buses that are often five to seven years old and in good shape when they come off a lease, Menyhart said, SEA Electric provides a “means to accelerate the trend toward electrification as well as find secondary uses for assets that are extremely well constructed and American-made.”

SEA Electric outsources manufacturing to several companies, including Fontaine Modification Co. in North Carolina, Roush Enterprises Inc. in Michigan and Knapheide Manufacturing Co. in Illinois. Working with several firms provides the company with redundancy and the ability to scale production when needed.

“We are at a point now where we are running major trials with some of the world’s largest fleet operators — the UPS, Staples and FedExes. At the end of the day, those are the type of organizations that could very well put in three-, four- and five-digit orders, and we need to be able to show them how we would be able to support them,” he said.

SEA Electric is on schedule to deliver more than 1,000 electric commercial vehicles this year, according to the company, and to have more than 15,000 vehicles on the road by the end of 2023.

“We are in a growth mode, so we are not profitable,” Menyhart said. “We’re focused on growth, and we fully anticipate going down a path to becoming a public company in the next six to 12 months, and we expect to be profitable in 2023. … We have real revenues; we have real trucks on the road. The working capital requirements will be a little bit of a drag until 2023 when we become EBITDA positive.”

Read the full article at Los Angeles Business Journal by Mediha DiMartino published on July 5, 2021.

Local challenger punches above its weight at Show

In this four part examination, we look at the upstart electric vehicle (EV) challengers to the established commercial vehicle manufacturers, who exhibited at this year’s Brisbane Truck Show (BTS).

Leading the EV charge at the show was burgeoning locally founded international player SEA Electric.

Withdrawals gave it the chance punch above its weight in the display stakes, utilising space the big names are traditionally accustomed to.

Vice president – Asia Pacific Glen Walker agrees that this was the intention.

“We were always coming but what this gave us the opportunity to do is present out entire range of vehicles,” Walker says.

“We were only going to have two vehicles on the smaller stand down the way.

“What we’ve now go is the two variants of the C500 and the two variants of the C300 together on the same stand.

“Call it our coming out.

“We are a truck manufacturer who has a range of trucks that happen to be electric, happen to be zero emission, happen to be quiet, happy to be smooth, happy to be fume-free, good for OH&S, happy to have a competitive total cost of ownership, and, equally importantly, designed and manufactured here in Australia, sold and serviced through a national dealer network.

“It’s what truck manufacturers do.”

Manufacturers are also fiercely competitive and SEA is in the sights of a dismissive Daimler. The sentiment is returned with the tart observation that “other manufacturers” are displaying “nothing new” at the show.

Asked how SEA was able to build the support structure now numbering 15 dealerships nationwide, Walker nominated two points.

“Relationships and a story,” he says.

“Many of those dealers, people within SEA Electric have dealt with them in a variety prior lives, so know many of them.

“We have used many of them in the early incarnation of our product development – buying diesel vehicles removing power systems and electrifying them.

“So, we already had established relationships and they believed the story and saw the potential. It took a while to get the dealer agreements and all those things together. But if you’ve got a willing seller and a willing buyer you’ll always come up with an acceptable solution.”

SEA understands that operational back-up for owners is crucial. SEA Electric vehicles now come with an NTI on-road support package for the life of the warranty period and the dealer network is part of the mix in the way that other truckmakers operate.

While he admits there is still some training to go with getting skills to where SEA Electric would wish them to be, there are also gains allowed by IT, with propulsion functions able to be diagnosed remotely from the Melbourne headquarters.

“Over time, that same level of expertise will become available in the dealerships as well,” Walker says.

The aim is to “normalise” the buying of an electric truck, both with the purchase through dealerships and the aftersales service, and the company is looking to do the same on a much greater sale in the US.

While acknowledging the development journey has not been without risk for those who took on the challenge of having SEA Electric trucks in their fleets, Walker is adamant that the vehicles on show were the best they could be at this stage as a result of that sort of support.

On what developments may be on the way, he underlines that the light- and medium-duty sectors is where the company will keep its focus, at least for the time being.

“It is true that SEA Electric will, one day, branch out into the prime mover market,” he says.

“But the pure battery technology in the prime mover market, with the additional weight that’s required and the additional range that’s required and the fact that you’re substantially reducing the amount of space that’s available on the chassis – there are some challenges for a pure battery prime mover.

“There’s a little bit more technological advancement that needs to be done, whether that’s hydrogen range extension or other forms of technology before we’ve settled on what the best solution for prime movers is.”

Read the full article at Owner Driver published on June 15, 2021.

Australian transport and logistics insurance specialist, NTI, will offer Truck Assist roadside support to customers operating electric trucks which have been manufactured or converted by SEA Electric.

Truck Assist’s General Manager, Alan Hasted, said the new Truck Assist initiative was in response to growing interest in green technology from truck owners.

“As a truck specialist it was important to us to support operators who were conscious of their environmental impact, looking for vehicle options which are cheaper in the long run, or simply striving to implement change in their business,” said Hasted.

“Drivers need access to Emergency Assistance should they break down, require a tow, lock themselves out or get a flat tyre. Our Truck Assist responders will be equipped to get SEA Electric’s vehicles back on the road or to an authorised dealer or repairer as quickly as possible to ensure minimal disruption to travel and business.”

SEA Electric President Asia Pacific, Bill Gillespie, said the company has now been converting liquid fuel powered trucks to electric drivelines for four years and has sold over 100 units of its locally manufactured all-electric vehicles across Australia and New Zealand.

“Demand for the new zero emission trucks has been high with another 80 orders placed for delivery in 2021, and even greater numbers being planned for 2022 across the Australia and New Zealand region,” said Gillespie.

SEA Electric is sold and distributed in Australia via a dedicated group of 17 dealer locations supporting customers with genuine sales, parts and service.

In addition to Roadside Assistance, NTI is expanding further into the zero-emission market with insurance for SEA Electric trucks, offering insurance premiums reflecting the value of the truck and not the traditional loading of premiums based on the perceived risks involving electric vehicles.

NTI Head of Motor Portfolio, Nick Dendrinos, said NTI has taken a hands-on approach to really understand electric trucks, how they work and what customers need.

“We’ve spent extensive time with SEA Electric understanding how these electric trucks are manufactured and configured, and what sort of damage could be sustained and repair options in the unfortunate event of an accident.”

Read the full article at Prime Mover Magazine published on June 7, 2021.

 
Are electric trucks ready to take over from diesel power?

SEA Electric trucks are creating plenty of buzz around the world. So we decided to tour their manufactured facility in Melbourne Australia and they gave us the keys to their game-changing SEA 300 electric truck to test.

You can watch the full video by Truck TV Australia on YouTube published on May 31, 2021.

New Zealand’s largest commercial vehicle leasing and rental company is adding Electric Vehicles (EVs) to its commercial vehicle fleet.

TR Group has taken delivery of three electric 11-tonne GVM 4×2 SEA powered curtainside trucks suitable for the round-town pick-up and delivery market.

The company has purchased the vehicles with co-funding from the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

The vehicles are available for rental to the wider NZ Transport sector as of May 2021. As a sign of the growing viability of Battery Electric Heavy Commercial Vehicles, the three units will join a further ten EVs that are currently under build or at work in TR’s Lease fleet with customers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming, TOLL, and Civic Contractors.

TR Group’s Managing Director, Andrew Carpenter, said that the company is excited by the positive impact the vehicles will have on the transport sector and the environment.

“There is no doubt that EV technology has advanced to the point where in the not too distant future it will become an economically-viable, operationally reliable option certainly in short-haul metro applications. And it is also one that I know our customers will embrace, given their desire to minimise their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals.”

EECA Transport Portfolio Manager Richard Briggs said, “Around 20% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport, and heavy vehicles have a disproportionate impact on that. TR Group’s new heavy electric trucks give road transport operators the chance to prove electric can work for them, and we look forward to seeing more businesses incorporating electric trucks into their fleets.”

Electric-powered vehicles—trucks included—produce fewer emissions than their conventional counterparts, and, in New Zealand, the electricity that powers them is largely from renewable sources.

“As a business that supplies heavy commercial vehicles for rental and lease, we feel it is important to be at the forefront of offering this technology to our customers, and we are delighted to be working with EECA and our customers to make that happen.” Andrew Carpenter said.

Read the full article at TR Group LTD by Shane O’Grady published on May 12, 2021.