Kenworth has introduced two new Class 8 battery-electric trucks: the vocational T880E and the next-gen T680E. In this video from ACT 2025 in Anaheim, California, Kenworth Assistant Chief Engineer Nick Harker discusses both models with Clean Trucking.
The new T880E is built from the ground up on a new PACCAR ePowertrain with a central drive eMotor, offering flexibility for various vocational upfits. It supports four battery configurations for extended range and was shown at this event with a flatbed body, though more options are possible.
Released alongside it, the updated T680E benefits from the same powertrain and offers customizable battery packs with over 200 miles of range. Both trucks share many components with Kenworth’s diesel models, ensuring easier maintenance and lower costs. They also feature redesigned interiors boasting large digital displays and digital side mirrors.
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Jay Traugott
Earlier this year, Kenworth unveiled their new T8 ATV. The industry's first vocational class eight battery electric truck and the next generation T6 ATV. Both of these trucks are built on the brand new Paccar integrated E powertrain system. In this video, we talk with Kenworth Assistant Chief engineer Nick Harker about what fleet owners and potential buyers need to know about these next generation models.
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Jay Traugott
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Nick Harker
Yeah, so the truck here is the latest addition into our vocational lineup. So this is a ground up design battery electric powertrain.
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Jay Traugott
And this one is unique because why.
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Nick Harker
This is unique because it's very configurable. So it brings the latest technology. But we can do various ranges so that we can make the truck fit the need of the customer. We can go from a two battery pack. So it's lower weight, lower cost, less range. And we can go a 3 or 4 or a five battery pack to get all the way up over 250 mile range at a full 82,000 pounds vehicle weight.
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Jay Traugott
Wow. So what are some of the main uses for this vehicle?
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Nick Harker
This truck, one of the thing that's great is we have incorporated a central drive e-motor. And so what we're able to do is get the flexibility that we have from a diesel powertrain. Right? So we can use the rear axles. We can have a very wide range of frame options. We can do pushers, we can do efeitos.
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Nick Harker
So it can be anything from a flatbed to, in the range drive. We have a dump truck and we can do mixers. We can do all sorts of things. So that's the great thing, is the first full class, eight vocational, we can support all those different markets very impressive.
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Jay Traugott
So what are some of the most interesting features just from the exterior that we can take a look at.
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Nick Harker
So we got a battery pack here. So this is the right hand string. There's a similar one on the other side. We have two strings behind the cab to get more range more battery. There's one under the hood as well. Some of the features that the battery packs have is we wanted it to be very, very safe.
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Nick Harker
So on every single battery string, there's a relay box. So we can isolate high voltage right at the pack. And then there's also a service disconnect. You can see right here where you can manually interrupt power so that when the truck sitting here like it is right now, it is completely safe to climb on and do service. We've got our low voltage battery box here, so that's what powers all the 12V and all the accessories.
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Nick Harker
It also controls the relays and things like that. On the other side of the truck we have, EPO, which takes high voltage power, turns that into pump pressure. So you can run, various components. So this will have a loader on it eventually is what this is destined for. And then like I said, so from the motor back it's basically a traditional Kenworth truck.
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Jay Traugott
Very interesting. So what's the power output and charging times. All these key relevant details.
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Nick Harker
So continuous power is 250kW and it goes up to 450 which is up to just over 600 horsepower. So that's the peak power output of the of the motor charge speed is a 350kW.
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Jay Traugott
So when does it go on sale and how much does it cost?
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Nick Harker
We have, our phase two out for sale now, which is the predecessor to this. Okay. This is a significant cost reduction from that. We haven't worked through all the final pricing yet, but this is this is significantly more integrated and will be a much better price for our customers as far as target for launch. So we are going through our validation right now to make sure that this is very, very robust.
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Nick Harker
We've got over 300,000 miles already and we're we're going towards a million plus to make sure that there are no issues and no challenges with this. So launch is dependent on that, but we're targeting sometime later this year.
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Jay Traugott
Interesting. Okay. Very nice. So let's go take a look at the other classic battery electric you got going here.
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Jay Traugott
All right. So what do we have behind us right now.
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Nick Harker
This is the T6 80 E. So this is the latest generation of our on highway battery electric product. So we currently have our previous generation out on the roads. Now this is taking our new body style updating it with the new electric powertrain. So this has the same E motor same batteries just in different configurations. This truck right here is a three battery pack.
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Nick Harker
So it's 150 mile range truck. But we can also go up to a four battery pack configuration to get over 200 miles range with the T6 80. So this is geared more on highway or, you know, regional haul that everything. We're leveraging the same components so that we can get our volumes up and we can get our price to a point that the customers need it to be.
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Nick Harker
Yeah. So on the interior, we've got some updated styling to go with our battery electric vehicle, some interior colors. We also have a new large infotainment display which offers a number of features. So we'll have some battery electric focused apps and things like that to really help customers make the shift from an internal combustion to a to a battery electric.
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Jay Traugott
So again, when is this going to be hitting the market.
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Nick Harker
Yeah. So this is a similar similar story as our vocational product. So they are going through validation at the same time. And so this will be hitting the market later this year. We are partnering with a number of customers to get miles on the road and to prove that this is a robust product and has all the right features.
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Nick Harker
But yeah, we're, we're very excited to get this, full production, later this year.
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Jay Traugott
All right. So thanks for watching, everyone. Be sure to like and subscribe and leave some comments down below. We'd love to hear from you.
