Motiv Wins ‘Popular Science’ Award

Motiv Power Systems’ electric Powertrain Control System (ePCS) has been awarded a 2014 Best of What’s New Award in Green Technology from “Popular Science.” This award comes after a big year for Motiv, including deliveries of North America’s first and only all-electric garbage truck to the city of Chicago and the first production model all-electric school bus in the U.S. Motiv is backed by Magness Ventures and has received grant funding from the California Air Resources Board.

The basis for Motiv’s win is the ePCS, a single platform that can electrify any truck or bus chassis with a variety of commercially available battery packs and motors that are upgradable over time. The ePCS is installed instead of an engine and transmission on new incomplete chassis such as the Ford E-450, as a ship-through modification. This process, common in the truck industry, is similar to a compressed natural gas ship-through modification and means minimal changes between the fossil fuel and electric versions of the final vehicle. Existing truck and bus builders who already use these incomplete chassis can build and sell electric versions of their existing truck and bus models. Motiv currently partners with Trans Tech Bus to provide the electric version of its Class-A school buses, Ameritrans Bus to provide an electric commercial shuttle bus and Cumberland Servicecenter to provide the 30-ton electric refuse trucks to the city of Chicago. www.motivps.com