Kalmar Ottawa introduced the yard tractor back in 1958. Like every great invention, evolution is necessary in order to remain market competitive.
[Related: Yard tractors take lead in battery electric market share]
Introducing the third-generation T2 EV, a fully battery-electric yard tractor designed to match the rugged performance and overall capabilities of its widely popular diesel counterpart.
Built in the U.S. at the company’s Ottawa, Kansas facility, the T2 EV is already in production and available in multiple battery configurations, up to 210 kWh. Plus, it has 240 hours worth of extensive testing under its belt, and is capable of operating and charging in extreme temperatures, ranging from -22° Fahrenheit to 122° F.
At this year's ACT Expo in Anaheim, California, Clean Trucking Senior Editor Jay Traugott met up with Eric Streich, Kalmar’s manager of zero emission sales, for a walkaround tour and short test drive to learn more about what makes this electric terminal tractor stand out from the competition.
Eric Streich
We invented the terminal tractor business in 1958. We've been building terminal tractors for 67 years now, and later this summer we're going to hit 95,000 units in production. While.
Jay Traugott
So here we are at Expo 2025 in Anaheim, California. And I am talking today with.
Eric Streich
I'm Eric Strike and I'm the manager of zero emission sales for Kalmar Ottawa. And we are here today to talk about our third generation battery electric tractor. This is the Kalmar Ottawa T2 EV. So this product is very similar to our internal combustion product. And what is so important about that is that we try to shorten that learning curve as best we can.
Eric Streich
And by doing that is trying to make a tractor that is as similar as possible to what they already know. And so a lot of that, you know, starts with the driver's side door. Obviously all our tractors do have a rear entry to the back of the cab. And that is built for a reason. So the operator can exit the cab, grab the airlines, grab the the electric cables, plug it into the trailer and move that trailer from point A to point B.
Jay Traugott
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Eric Streich
On the roadside here, we do have two 12 volt batteries that are wired in series, and that serves as your access to get up to the cab of the tractor itself. Inside this compartment here we have some low voltage fuzes and relays. The operator will never have the need to get in here. A factory trained technician would go in there if they needed to to do to do some type of repairs are maintenance to the equipment.
Eric Streich
You've got a hydraulic tank here. This hydraulic tank is a requirement for a yard tractor. Because this yard tractor has a hydraulic boom that raises the lowers. And what's so important about that is the operator can exit the cab, connect, jump back in the cab, raise the boom. They don't have to get out. Crank up the landing gear.
Eric Streich
It speeds up the process of moving that trailer or that container from point A to point B from the back side. Here, obviously you've got your your fifth wheel. This is a fifth wheel that is specially built for the terminal tractor segments, and it's built by one of our suppliers. This tractor will couple and decouple maybe 40 to 60 times a day.
Eric Streich
So it is built specifically with the purpose of that repetition and that frequency.
Jay Traugott
And this is not a brand new vehicle. Obviously. This is this is seeing some action.
Eric Streich
This is a demonstration unit. This tractor has been down with customers in the port of LA. Okay. When we're done with the show, we'll get a clean back up and we'll get it down to more customers so they can put the tractor to use in their facility over here on the curbside. This is one of our two battery packs.
Eric Streich
This tractor has 210 kilowatt hours of energy. There's three battery packs that are mounted underneath the cab between the frame rails. And then you've got three additional packs here. So those are equal to 210 kilowatt hours that, that, that we have to offer. Because this is a port spec tractor. We also have what's called a container guard.
Eric Streich
That container guard is there to protect the operator when they're offloading containers from a ship to shore crane, that there's a little bit of a breeze. That container may sway.
Jay Traugott
And also there's these cork composite.
Eric Streich
We've got some composite materials as well on the tractor. These tractors get a lot of abuse. And the benefit of having certain composites on the equipment is when they do get abused, they do get damaged. It speeds up the repair process. So the piece of equipment kids can get back into work.
Jay Traugott
Like even with this one here, I can see it's just screwed or bolted, right? It'll come right out and swap it in.
Eric Streich
Absolutely, absolutely. On the front of the cab. We do have our charge receiver, the support one charging.
Jay Traugott
Very good.
Eric Streich
We know some customers. They'll have CCS, one DC fast chargers out on site. But in the event that they bring a tractor to the shop for repairs, some shops may just want to have a simple level two Wallbox charger. And so, we can support we can support both with that.
Jay Traugott
And what's the battery charging time?
Eric Streich
That's one CCS one, depending on how many kilowatt hours you have on board and the charge yourself, it could be as fast as 45 minutes to maybe 2.5 hours, depending on how many kilowatt hours of energy on board and the type of charger that they have.
Jay Traugott
What do you mean not even need that? Because at the end of the day, you just plug it.
Eric Streich
In and you're done. Absolutely. Our tractors offer three different energy levels. We call a low E, which is 105 kilowatt hours of energy. We have a midea which is 140 kilowatt hours. And then we have this tractor which is the high 210. So what we do with our customers and our dealers is we'll do a site survey or an application survey.
Eric Streich
We go out with the customer, we learn about their operation, we learn about how they use the equipment. And then based off of that and what their goals they want to achieve, we will suggest the right tractor with the appropriate charger so they can obtain those goals that they want achieved in their operation.
Jay Traugott
And they're on sale right now. Correct? Absolutely.
Eric Streich
We started production this month.
Jay Traugott
And speaking production where they all built.
Eric Streich
They are all built in Ottawa, Kansas. So we invented the product. We've been building it since 1867. It's in Ottawa, Kansas, about an hour and 20 minutes southwest of Kansas City.
Jay Traugott
Very cool. Well, I think it's about time to take this thing for a quick spin.
Eric Streich
Let's jump into town. Let's go for a ride. So perfect. So the first thing to do is just turn it over to the first position and leave it right there. And basically what that's doing is that's bringing up the low voltage system on the tractor yourself. You'll see that on the display. So now what you do is you just turn it over one more time, just turn it to the right and let go.
Eric Streich
Now that's going to bring up to life the high voltage system itself. So very cool. Now what you do is, this is your directional controls. So what do you do with your foot on the brake? Push D for drive. And now you'll push in into service brakes right here to release the brakes themselves sometimes. Yep. Give it a little.
Eric Streich
There we go.
Jay Traugott
There. Parking brake enable.
Eric Streich
And now we're ready to go.
Jay Traugott
Okay. What I like about this is it's still very, very familiar.
Eric Streich
Absolutely, absolutely. Yep. All your Hvac controls, your lighting controls, your directional controls, even your boom controls are in the same spot on an internal combustion product as they are on this.
Jay Traugott
Another thing I really like is standard knobs for your Hvac control.
Eric Streich
Correct?
Jay Traugott
Instead of integrating into a panel or something like that, this is makes a lot more sense.
Eric Streich
We had this panel right here. The purpose for this is because some customers of ours have what's called a yard management system. So they may have a table, or they may have some sort of a display that's here. And you can plug your power controls right there. So that's it for us. That's USB. But we would also have some bullet connectors where we can tie in.
Eric Streich
There is also some, some power supply beneath this panel as well. Oh they get thicker wiring. Should they need to.
Jay Traugott
All right. I think we're ready to go.
Eric Streich
Excellent.
Jay Traugott
I notice I just took my foot off the brake very slightly. Yeah, I went forward. All right. I love the, the commanding view that we got here.
Eric Streich
The these tractors operate sometimes in very, very tight environments. Yes. In close proximity to other trailers, other pieces of equipment. So we need to make sure the operators have have excellent visibility. And obviously, you know, you can see you've got, visibility almost 360 degrees. We've got a window behind the operator as well, so that, that that also improves visibility.
Eric Streich
This particular tractor does also have overhead visibility window. The purpose of that is yeah, I noticed when this tractor operates in a port or terminal, sure. They are pulling underneath a ship to short crane and they need to be able to look up so they can see where they are in relation to where that container is. They'll have what's called a farm cart behind them.
Eric Streich
That that operator, that crane operator will drop that container down on top.
Jay Traugott
So yeah, I also remember reading in your press release that the testing for the especially the batteries outside temperature is a concern. Get tested and down to a -22 Fahrenheit all the way up to 120°F.
Eric Streich
That is correct. That is correct. So this does have what we call an active thermal management system, TMS. And that T.e.n.s has three coolers loops. It has one loop to cool the traction motor, the drive motor because that drive motor can't get warmed up.
Jay Traugott
Sure, it.
Eric Streich
Has a toilet loop to either heat or cool the batteries themselves depending on the ambient air temperature. And then finally it has a third coolant loop, which is for the cab itself. All electric tractors do come standard with air conditioning. And obviously,
Jay Traugott
That's very important. Absolutely working.
Eric Streich
Absolutely. Right. So now we do also utilize, abs to recapture some regenerative braking and recapture some of that energy. When you do get a chance, we get around the sixth corner. We'll create some space between ourselves and that tractor ahead of us.
Jay Traugott
Okay.
Eric Streich
And then, you can give it give it a little bit of acceleration. Can't go too fast, but then you can let off the accelerator and you'll feel the ABS system and you'll feel that regenerative braking that we're talking about.
Jay Traugott
All right, we'll try that in a second. I also noticed, you know, again, everything with regard to turning radius is very, absolutely, very simple. I'm not I'm not even really moving the steering wheel that much. It's very, very slight.
Eric Streich
It's 126 inch wheelbase. So it does have a very very good turning radius. Yep. And again, that's you know, that is a lot of the times, just because these tractors do operate in very tight environments, they've got to be able to back in in some cases maybe as much as a, 53ft trailer.
Jay Traugott
Cool. So I let go now and. Sure. So just take my yes.
Eric Streich
Go slow or no, go ahead. You can go ahead and speed up, and then you can let off the accelerator and then you'll feel that abs and you'll feel the run when you feel that.
Jay Traugott
Oh yes.
Eric Streich
That that is programable.
Jay Traugott
Okay.
Eric Streich
And we can program that based off of what the customer wants.
Jay Traugott
Okay. So customers are able to come out to your facility and say test drive.
Eric Streich
Absolutely.
Jay Traugott
And make certain determinations based on what they feel is works best for them.
Eric Streich
That is correct.
Jay Traugott
Eric, thank you very much.
Eric Streich
Appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming out today. Appreciate your interest in the camera, Ottumwa.
Jay Traugott
Awesome. Thank you.
