Watch This Diesel-Electric Edison Pickup Truck Tow an 8,000-Pound Airstream Like It’s Nothing

I’ve been watching Edison Motors with bated breath for years now. If you ask me, the crew there is doing genuinely exciting work with electrification—in both the heavy-duty and the light-duty truck space. I’ve written about its series-hybrid projects multiple times and even interviewed the CEO, and now, they’ve hit another key milestone: Towing 8,000 pounds with their scratch-built pickup that started as a 1995 Dodge and now runs electric axles with a diesel generator under the hood.

Last we wrote about this rig, it had just moved under its own power for the first time. Operation was limited to simple back-and-forth, however, as there was still a lot of work left to make it drivable. Now, it’s passed a series of safety checks, and it’s pulling a big Airstream camper on public roads.

The truck you’re looking at here—dubbed the ReCharger—was previously powered by a 12-valve, 5.9-liter Cummins diesel. It still has a Cummins, actually, albeit a smaller R2.8 four-cylinder. That engine serves as a mobile generator, charging the onboard battery that supplies electricity to the e-axles. It’s a powertrain concept pioneered by locomotives more than 100 years ago, adapted to a pickup truck. Edison also takes this approach with heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

You can tell in this video just how easily the pickup pulls the old camper. Taking off from a stop is painless, and what’s even better is the control it has over the load. Whereas diesel engines often utilize Jake brakes or exhaust brakes to slow down a truck-and-trailer combo, this series-hybrid employs regenerative braking. It’s turned up high enough in this rig to spare the friction brakes almost completely during normal operation. All the while, the truck is harvesting that spent energy and feeding it back into the battery to be used again. It’s a win-win.

We Hooked an Airstream to Our Hybrid Ram Truck (First Towing Test)

Edison’s Vice President of Pickups Rich DeBoss said that with a 60 kilowatt-hour battery charge, the machine has pulled the Airstream roughly 75 miles. Of course, the purpose of the diesel engine is to recharge the battery on the go, but they’re still refining the setup. Although this specific R2.8 Cummins was thought to be a later model with a more powerful tune, DeBoss speculates that it’s actually an earlier engine that puts out below 300 lb-ft of torque. He reckons that a larger engine, between 3.0 and 4.0 liters, would be best. For now, they’re making it work with the tinier four-cylinder that likes to run around 2,600 rpm; their goal is to run at a quieter 1,800 rpm in the future.

It’s important to note that this is very much still a prototype. DeBoss mentions that future iterations of the truck will be more refined, with the generator kicking on automatically as needed. (They’re currently engaging it manually.) Also, while Edison planned to sell the bundled hardware as a kit, it sounds like the company has run into problems there with Canada’s legal system. Nevertheless, it intends to take the original equipment manufacturer route, which would allow it to sell Edison-branded pickups with series-hybrid powertrains. It may also sell the individual components in case builders are interested in trying their own hand at such a project.

DeBoss is such a big believer in the project that he’s left behind his old YouTube channel, DeBoss Garage, to work full-time at Edison. The Canadian company has come a long way, from working out of a basement to a fully fledged shop with a dirt floor—talk about moving on up. Jokes aside, though, it’ll be intriguing to see what Edison can eventually accomplish with these diesel-electric pickup trucks. I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger manufacturers follow their lead when the regulations call for it.

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