24 September/October 2025 | E-Mobility Engineering “When it comes to cost savings, that brings in a significant upside. Based on market pricing in the US – with a cost of $4 per gallon for diesel and an electricity rate of 12 cents per kilowatt – and assuming it follows a typical regeneration model for a refuse heavyduty truck, it can achieve up to 70% reduction in fuel cost savings.” Battery and charging The latest version of the LRe uses Volvo Group’s generation three nickel magnesium cobalt (NMC) battery, which offers improved chemistry, pack design and cell density over its predecessor. This increased the available power from 264 to 376 kW and did so in the same space, for the same cost and, in relative terms, with more or less the same weight. The battery architecture moved away from cylindrical packaging to a prismatic form factor – which Fotopoulos describes as “AA versus 9V – because one is square and one is round.” The set-up is configured in four individual blocks – officially known as Energy Storage System (ESS) packs – to optimise packaging within the existing chassis layout. “We have two on the side of the chassis and two behind the cab in the gantry,” he explains. “That helps packaging but also weight balance. There’s only so much real estate in the truck, so we wanted to optimise that real estate to fit all the components and having one huge battery is just not accommodating. “Even when we develop a new platform, I think we would still do a modular set-up for the batteries because these trucks have different configurations depending on the use case – a rear-loader or side-loader application. You want to configure the batteries to optimise to the given application, so I don’t think you’d ever want one mega battery in the centre.” The battery capacity has been sized to provide a range that avoids the need to charge on a duty cycle, although it is capable of up to 150 kW DC level-three fast charging if required, using industry standard J1772 5-pin communication. The charging curve runs at full capacity for a wide range of 10–70%, tapering off gently up to 100%. One of the biggest considerations during the development was the balance between power and weight – or more specifically, payload. This is a vehicle that earns its keep carrying heavy loads, so minimising vehicle weight and maximising payload is vital to deliver a solution that is attractive in what can be a highly competitive market. The resulting capability of the LRe is a payload of up to 11.5 tonnes (25,500 lbs), with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of close to 30 tonnes (66,000 lbs) – taking it into the Class 8 heavy-duty category. There is even an option to ‘go large’ with a 32.6 tonne (72,000 lbs) truck that accommodates an even greater payload weight. “Payload is the moneymaker of the customer, so we wanted to make sure we were meeting their requirements in that area,” says Fotopoulos. “Our engineering technology strategy had to consider the factors of a triple-bladed sword: the vehicle only has so much space, it can only bear so much weight and the customer can only bear so much cost. “We wanted to maintain durability and dependability, so we didn’t want to take a cab that was steel and make it aluminium to reduce its weight. The aim was to take that durability and dependability and electrify it. So, because weight was a big part of the equation, we had to take that into consideration and deal with it a different way. “We could try to put a megawatt of power on, but can you imagine what the payload and the cost would be Power-to-weight balance plays a huge part in the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles Payload is the moneymaker of the clients, so we wanted to make sure we were meeting their requirements in that area
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