Clean Trucking Senior Editor Jay Traugott was on the ground at the 2025 ACT Expo in Anaheim, California and talked to ReVolt president and CEO Gus Gardner about the new diesel-hybrid electric Class 8 semi, a retrofitted Peterbilt.
With its 9-liter Scania diesel engine powering a generator, which charges a 210 kWh battery pack, the ReVolt has 100 miles of all-electric range and a combined range of 1,200 miles.
Jay Traugott
Here we are at the 2025 Act Expo in Anaheim, California. And behind me is Revolt Motors. Now, there's been a lot of interest in this hybrid diesel class eight semi rig.
Gus Gardner
So kind of starting at the at the front we've got, you know, a classic Peterbilt 379. So just your your classic long hood kind of operators truck all American. Yeah. Got a nine liter Scania DCO nine engine powering a 250 kilowatt generator. So this is our range extender. This is our diesel range extender. It puts 250kW into the batteries.
Gus Gardner
This kind of solves all of your range anxiety right. All the you know, high voltage power distribution is under the cab diesel tank right here. So I think we've got an 80 gallon tank that gives us our, 1200 miles of combined range. And then right next to it, we've got our second fuel source, which is obviously the batteries, 210 kilowatt hours of chemistry batteries.
Gus Gardner
So we can do 100 miles of all electric range and you can plug it in. If you have the infrastructure, you can plug it.
Jay Traugott
In, and you don't necessarily have to have the infrastructure to get this going. Yeah. And then or you could get the infrastructure at a later time. You so already have this available.
Gus Gardner
There's there's kind of two components to this. So we've got the drivetrain system right. All the physical assembly of all these components and all that other stuff. The next step is, you know, all of the software in the control infrastructure that tells the truck wind power from the batteries when to drop power from the diesel, when to you know, how much power to push from each, how much region to deal.
Jay Traugott
So it's also a smart truck, too. It's like a true, retrofit. It is where you have smart technology in the interior. Yeah. And it still looks like an all American Peterbilt.
Jay Traugott
So say somebody wants to place an order, do they have to provide you with the truck itself, or do you provide the Peterbilt?
Gus Gardner
We kind of work, right? So if you want to place an order. Yeah. The first step, go on the website, fill out the contact form. The first step is, hey, let's make sure that the application you want to deploy this in is going to create value for you. So if you're driving LA to Phoenix at 60 miles an hour, hauling of, you know, 40,000 pound load, getting ten miles a gallon with a super efficient truck, we're probably not going to help you, okay?
Gus Gardner
It's not going to justify the cost. Fair enough. If you're going, you know, through mountains, through, you know, your route is all rural roads, through a bunch of small towns where you're starting and stopping, going over hills. Right. And you're getting six and a half, five and a half, four miles a gallon. We're probably going to be a huge addition to your like, we're going to have a really short payback period.
Gus Gardner
We're going to create value for you. Okay. So step one is really let's make sure that it's a good fit for all. We're not about we've got this product. It's great for everybody. We're about hey what applications make the most sense. Like where do we create value that doesn't need to be subsidized by the federal government, by state, by a grant, any of that we qualify for those.
Jay Traugott
That was actually my next question because there's a there's a lot of confusion out right now about what subsidies are and are not available. Yes. So where are we at with that with you guys.
Gus Gardner
Yes. So we are, you know, Carb compliant. We are in the process of getting our EPA certified configuration. You know, all of these other things. We're very close on that. We've been working on that actually since before we started the company.
Jay Traugott
And the fact that it's Carb compliant is a huge factor, because there's going to be different states that are going by Carb rules and others that are not. So the drivers are fleets are going to be able to enter those states without any issue.
Gus Gardner
Exactly. And we've got a great team that will walk you through all of the regulatory compliance and all that stuff for your specific need, your application, your, you know, regulatory environment, which is a lot more of a patchwork than a consistent kind of across the board.
Jay Traugott
Okay. So next question that everybody wants to know pricing.
Gus Gardner
Yeah. So the base kit you know we're going to do a retrofit a Repower. Yeah. Base kit before any incentives any of that stuff's 200,000 okay. Again that's you know we look at applications where we drive an ROI. That's why it's the first question we ask.
Jay Traugott
So what's the turnaround time when someone places an order, whether for the system retrofit or for a whole vehicle.
Gus Gardner
Yeah. So it's it's about a week for install right now. We're, you know, we are looking for, let's say another, you know, 5 to 6 fleets that have applications where we really drive value.
Jay Traugott
In 2020, a company called Highly on introduce a vehicle similar in concept to rebuilds, a hybrid electric truck powered in part by natural gas. But Helion eventually halted sales and development of the truck, citing high component costs and limited customer demand. We ask us why he believes revel will succeed. When Leon did not.
Gus Gardner
They had a CNG powered system. And so I think when I talk about our focus on applications, it's really important. The applications we're seeing is really quite prominent is really in return to our applications. So there's not a lot of truck stops that have CNG pumps right. So generally the fleets that have adopted them are in, you know, shorter duration going back to the same yard where they have the infrastructure to to fill up the CNG tanks highly and had a sleeper truck with CNG tanks.
So the people that purchase a long wheelbase sleeper are not deploying that in a situation where it comes back to the yard every night. Got it. So I think that was sort of fundamental challenge in terms of adoption of just that application. It wasn't fit for purpose necessarily. I think their their technology, their concept was really good. Maybe they were early, maybe it was different.
Gus Gardner
You know, I only know how we're approaching solving these challenges. But I think that we've worked with fleets from the start, and that's why we focus on the applications and and interacting early on, right. To say, will this work with your needs?
Jay Traugott
It comes right down. Does it work or does it not work for the purpose it's intended for it?
Gus Gardner
Exactly.
Jay Traugott
Well, Gus, thank you very much for your time. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with next year. Yeah, at this time in the hopefully, we'll be seeing more of these revolt, pure builds out on the road. Yeah. Before then.
