EDITORIAL: Hop on the hydrogen highway

Two years ago at the inaugural North American Commercial Vehicle (NACV) Show in Atlanta, a recurring theme from nearly every truck manufacturer and supplier press conference was vehicle uptime, along with the various telematics and connectivity solutions that enable fleet managers to keep their trucks on the road. While these certainly were important topics at this year's NACV Show, the dominant takeaway from the Georgia World Congress Center was that alternative propulsion is top of mind for many industry players.

Navistar launched a new business unit, NEXT eMobility Solutions, to deliver customized electrification solutions in the truck and school bus markets. The business unit, which will be based in the Detroit area, took little time to make a splash, revealing a prototype electric version of the International MV Series medium-duty vehicle, the eMV. The concept is powered by an electric motor with 474 kW peak power and 300 kW continuous power and is designed to accommodate battery-capacity options ranging from 107 to 321 kWh. Navistar says customers operating a truck with a 321-kWh battery in typical pickup-and-delivery cycles should expect a range of 250 miles (400 km) on a single charge.