U.S. firm Workhorse has debuted its W-15: the automotive industry’s first electric pickup truck built from the ground up. Other electric pickup trucks have been made in the past, but the W-15 is the first that was not converted from an existing truck.
While the truck appears to be more of a hybrid than a pure electric vehicle, many automotive pundits are claiming the Workhorse W-15 will compete against Tesla’s electric pickup truck once it hits the market. Like Tesla, Workhorse built its own 60-kWh battery pack with lithium-ion cells. On a full charge, Workhorse says the battery pack is good for about 130 km of all-electric driving. Charging a depleted battery takes seven to eight hours.
The battery is mounted under the vehicle, where it doubles as the truck’s frame. Front and rear subframes, each with an electric motor, single-speed reduction gearbox, and a fully independent coil-spring suspension, are mounted to the frame. Up front, a BMW-sourced three-cylinder gasoline engine acts a generator producing 50 kW of electricity to charge the battery or drive the electric motors.
