[Flash Walken]

Cummins may be best-known for producing brawny diesel engines for commercial trucks and light-duty pickups, but it's leaping into the world of EVs with both feet. On Tuesday, the Columbus, Indiana-based company revealed an Urban Hauler Tractor concept that's pure electric. In doing so, Cummins may have stolen a little thunder from Tesla — the Silicon Valley automaker has plans to reveal an electric semi truck of its own in September.

Designed as a Class 7 semi, the 18,000-pound big rig known as AEOS is designed to move freight locally, over short hauls. It can carry some 44,000 pounds of payload, and its 140-kWh battery pack only takes an hour to charge at a 140-kWh charging station. The fully operational prototype is only tipped to have 100 miles of range, however, so AEOS is definitely a city-oriented cargo solution. (By contrast, reports have Tesla's yet-to-be-revealed rival as producing 200-300 miles of range). Cummins says that by 2020, improvements in battery tech are "expected to reduce" the charge time to 20 minutes.

Being engine experts as opposed to whole vehicle developers, Cummins has wisely tapped the auto industry engineering and development gurus at Roush Industries to help develop the truck, which helps explain how production is planned for as early as 2019. Cummins does not plan to assemble the trucks, but instead views itself as a supplier of the battery and driveline system.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/c...ic-semi-truck/