Irizar showcased its electric ie truck at Solutrans 2021
At the company's booth the electric ie truck definitely stood up with its grey body. The truck has been designed by the Irizar Group in response to the needs of cities and urban environments, without generating atmospheric or noise pollution.
With its electric ie truck, the Irizar Group participates in Solutrans 2021, the Lyonnaise exhibition that will end on November 20. Indeed, we have been there and will report on what we’ve seen and experienced in Lyon (here’s what the exhibition Director promised a couple of months ago). Back to Irizar, at the company’s booth the electric ie truck definitely stood up with its grey body. The truck has been designed by the Irizar Group in response to the needs of cities and urban environments, without generating atmospheric or noise pollution.
The low-floor cab and right-hand door have been developed exclusively to provide maximum safety in urban manoeuvres. It has a single 370 mm access step, guaranteeing safe passage for the driver and crew. The truck can accommodate a total of four people, with three folding seats for the crew. The low position of the driver’s seat and the wide front and side windows provide the driver with a great panoramic view of the road. Since 2018, when the very first units were produced in Spain, traction systems, energy storage, thermal management and other elements and components have undergone constant testing with progressive validation programmes at every stage of the vehicle’s design.
Irizar ie truck: very suitable for waste collection…
The first application developed is waste collection management and the first field-tested applications were in the collection of urban solid waste, as this is the most challenging type of heavy road vehicle to engineer, not only due to the need to drive on all types of wide or narrow, flat or sloping roads, with frequent stopping and starting motions, but also because the bodies of this type of application subject the chassis to very high stresses when lifting the containers and compacting the waste.
As for the electric motors, they’re developed and manufactured by Alconza (Irizar Group), a company dedicated to electric motors and generators for the marine, hydraulic generation and industrial sectors for special uses. Synchronous permanent magnet technology is used, as they yield the biggest torque and power density figures. The powertrain is compact and light, thus saving on space and weight. The electronics that control the motor and inverters are developed by Jema Energy, which specialises in high-end power electronics.
The possibility of relying on a CNG range extender
NMC (lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide) cells are used in the ie truck’s batteries, due to their high energy density and power density relative to other chemistries, in addition to their high number of cycles, thus helping to minimise the number of pack replacements needed over the 8-10 year lifetime of each truck. For the most energy demanding applications, there is also the possibility of a range extender that allows the work task to be extended with an engine running on CNG. This technology allows the vehicle to work in 100 percent electric mode in urban centres and, once outside, to recharge the battery in order to be ready to drive in full electric mode when coming back to the city center.
The Irizar ie truck is currently available in two versions: a four-wheeled, two-axle truck with a maximum weight of 10.5 tonnes, a battery capacity of up to 340 kWh (offering a range of up to 250 km between charges) requiring up to 2 hours’ charging time on a 150 kW input, and a 160 kW electric motor. The other is a six-wheel, three-axle truck powered by a 240 kW e-motor, with the same range between charges enabled by battery capacity of 340 kWh (with a 3 hour charge time at 150 kWh). Either model can come with a fully-electric powertrain or with a hybrid-electric range extender.
