Opinions on Edison Motors

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ADaniel4573

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For those of you who are unaware, there is a company that started up a couple years ago called Edison Motors. The owner of the company has a YouTube channel and a lot more information can be learned there but more or less Edison Motors focuses on taking older heavy duty trucks and converting them to a diesel electric platform. Recently they have released that in 2025 they will be releasing a conversion kit for converting older pickup trucks to a diesel electric platform. It gives you everything you need from the diesel electric generator all the way to to the electric axles.

In my opinion, I think this is badass. It's one of the smartest ways I have seen by far for handling the idea of EV trucks. I've been keeping my eye on Edison motors for a while, watching all of his videos what he is doing and has done is downright amazing. Something that I actually hope really works out and I am really considering buying one of his conversion kits when it's released.

For people who know what I'm talking about, what is y'all's opinion on Edison Motors and what they are doing?
 
My uncle might be interested in that topic of converting the old pick up trucks. He doesn't like the fancy EV vehicles, though! He just got 35" nitto tires from 4Wheelonline onto his Ram. I'll check out their videos.
 
Sounds very plausible, just like the locomotives and the only realistic sustainable way I see it working until EV technology evolves.
 
Can you go small enough on the engine size to get away from most of the emissions equipment? Isn't a ~75hp cutoff?

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Their brand loyalty to CAT is an issue.
I admit I've ignored the details because of the amount of cheerleaders from people not part of the industry.
It's funny, my buddies and I talked (argued) about a hybrid pulling truck at TS's pull in 2012. Now companies are proposing doing exactly that.

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bet its cost prohibitive..altho..it would have to be less than 12k for the conversion..cuz thats the cost of a new engine..why would ya..roi is like a windmill or solar...by the time its paid for itself its junk
 
Im not sure what they will chose for an engine and to be honest im not versed in emission regulations for a case like this. In any case, a smaller diesel engine running a various low rpm using a truck size fuel tank, tank a fuel should last quite a while. Id imagine a couple weeks as a daily driver.
 
its mostly the locomotive concept in a pickup or semi..which is great..but very many parts there look like theyre proprietary. thatll be the biggest issue im thinking. axles. brkae system? new engine. new trans generator...about half the cost of a new truck..thats about 50k US....
 
dieselbeef said:
its mostly the locomotive concept in a pickup or semi..which is great..but very many parts there look like theyre proprietary. thatll be the biggest issue im thinking. axles. brkae system? new engine. new trans generator...about half the cost of a new truck..thats about 50k US....
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They are using a conventional chassis on the heavy tractor. Something I don't like is that they are retaining a drive line (unless that's changed recently) when the other oems are building the motor stator group into the chunk.



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but not axles..or any driveline components..what about brakes? internal with the motors? dynamic?

driveline might be bester..easier to repair a single component? roi seems impossible to meet
 
Not sure if it's these guys or someone else doing something similar, but I recently watched a video where their prototype was built with the electric motor spinning the regular driveline, but they planned to go to drive motors at the wheels. Seems more cost effective to use the existing driveline to me.

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dieselbeef said:
but not axles..or any driveline components..what about brakes? internal with the motors? dynamic?

driveline might be bester..easier to repair a single component? roi seems impossible to meet
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I meant the entire thing, conventional axles, drive line. Motor with drive flanges. They have it built to do retrograde/regenerative braking.
They say they have some proprietary designs on it, but I can't remember what. Most of what I saw, you could buy a multiquip generator and strap it to a truck chassis, add a motor with controller and have 80% of what they have done. I'm pretty sure I heard the name danfoss in one of the videos, they power flow controls and components.



I doubt they will be able to package enough heat sinking to do any real retrograde braking. But who knows.

This is essentially taking an AC drive haul truck and packing it in a vocational HD truck. The big talk was using capacitors for peak shaving, but I haven't gotten to talk to anyone at CAT about that in years.


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So to my understanding, and this is just based on my interpretation of what I read from their description that you will get a engine powered generator to put in your engine bay and that generator will power what they call electric drive axles which I assume means the electric motor is built into the axles which is what moves the truck.

Which what biggy was saying about the regenerative braking that would still be able to be applied, now if they're going to keep the hydraulic braking that came with the truck with those axles I am unsure about nor do I know how that would work. Really thinking about it, I would think the design and manufacturing of a whole new axle for every different type of truck would be expensive. I would think it be cheaper to design an electric motor that can take the place of the pinion and ring gear in the factory axle and bolt in place of the diff cover or center section (depending on which axle have). I could see that being cheaper for design and manufacturing and overall total cost for the package.
 
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ADaniel4573 said:
So to my understanding, and this is just based on my interpretation of what I read from their description that you will get a engine powered generator to put in your engine bay and that generator will power what they call electric drive axles which I assume means the electric motor is built into the axles which is what moves the truck.
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This would be cost prohibitive over offering something that only replaces the engine transmission group. Their target market encompasses too many vehicles/axle makes.

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yea. just replace the engine trans with a power source and the generator...use a home genrator..make 35k...lolits already a pkg....dont let generac in on our game tho.ssshhhh
 
I’ve always thought a small diesel engine powering a generator and motors on each wheel would be the way to go.
 
They say the kit will cost anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a new pickup. That covers a broad spectrum. Neat idea, but, it still uses batteries. And those things don't do good in the cold.
 
BigPapa said:
I’ve always thought a small diesel engine powering a generator and motors on each wheel would be the way to go.
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From what I understand, having the motors on each end causes phasing issues that have to be accounted for.

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