Harbinger Motors unveiled its new HC Series Cab at ACT Expo 2026, introducing a medium-duty vehicle platform designed to address longstanding driver comfort and performance issues associated with traditional diesel cabover trucks.
Built on a clean-sheet architecture, the Southern California startup's latest design eliminates the front-mounted diesel engine found in conventional low cab forward vehicles, significantly reducing cabin noise, heat, and vibration. The platform also features a proprietary electronic power steering system engineered to improve steering precision and reduce the excessive backlash often found in legacy cabover designs.
The HC Series Cab rides on Harbinger's proprietary hybrid and battery-electric chassis platform. At its core is a compact 500-pound integrated electric drive unit that combines the motor, transmission, and differential into a single package. According to the company, the system delivers up to 12,000 lb-ft of torque at the rear axle while replacing thousands of pounds of traditional diesel powertrain components.
Harbinger also showcased an all-electric Morgan Olson walk-in delivery van built on the same modular platform, highlighting the company's approach to scaling both hybrid and battery-electric commercial vehicle applications while lowering operating costs for fleet operators.
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Jay Traugott
Harbinger Motors is currently one of the only commercial vehicle manufacturers building a hybrid class five and six chassis. In March of 2026, harbinger announced they would begin implementing their hybrid chassis into a brand new cab over style truck designed to solve some of the biggest flaws of traditional diesel categories. And while this hybrid setup eliminates range, the new HC Series cab is also available as an all electric model.
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Jay Traugott
In this video, we're walking Harbingers Act Expo booth, speaking with our co-founder and CEO John Harris to take a deep dive into the technology behind this platform and to stay up to date on the latest news from Harbinger Motors and other commercial vehicle startups. Sign up for our free newsletter using the link in the description below.
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John Harris
So the HC series cab. We're obviously going with a low carb forward architecture here. Yes, I think this is the right architecture for an electric or hybrid in particular. Why exactly do you think when we think about cab chassis as a whole, you've got the split between conventional and forward cabs. But if we think about the use case split, I think cab forwards are much more dominant on box trucks as well as some applications for stake beds.
00;01;17;17 - 00;01;36;13
John Harris
And I think the conventional is much more popular when we look at all and gas service construction. I think if we look at the cab chassis market as a whole, even though the low cab forward is only half the market. Yeah, I think it's the part that's going to electrify much faster. Why do you think that, though? Well, the box truck is where you want the electric vehicle.
00;01;36;14 - 00;01;49;17
John Harris
That's just the savings the commercial uses. But I also think that this is a product that's impacted much more by electrification because you're sitting on the engine. You have really disappointing steering performance. It's going to be loud, very loud vibration. Exactly.
00;01;49;21 - 00;01;51;14
Jay Traugott
When you're driving this thing all day, right?
00;01;51;14 - 00;02;01;23
John Harris
When you're sitting on an engine, it's just going to be unpleasant. It's going to hurt. That's where the engine is. In a cab. Over. Yeah. When you get rid of the engine, you get to make the cab over way better.
00;02;01;29 - 00;02;04;05
Jay Traugott
So it's just a better experience overall.
00;02;04;11 - 00;02;08;12
John Harris
It's hard to make the 550 a lot better. It's just already a good product.
00;02;08;13 - 00;02;08;25
Jay Traugott
Exactly.
00;02;08;26 - 00;02;28;28
John Harris
It's a lot easier to take a diesel low carb forward and make it a lot better. And we also see that same opportunity in the steering and braking. When you drive a low carb forward, typically you get kind of a disappointing steering experience because you've got that complex steering angle. With us, we've moved to that EPAs system. So the electronically power assisted steering, we get a lot less backlash.
00;02;28;28 - 00;02;33;26
John Harris
We get a lot less steering load. So again, the opportunity to make the low carb forward just way better.
00;02;33;26 - 00;02;36;08
Jay Traugott
Is there. Yeah.
00;02;36;11 - 00;02;38;12
Jay Traugott
So John, tell us more about this hybrid.
00;02;38;12 - 00;02;40;01
Jay Traugott
Chassis right behind us.
00;02;40;01 - 00;02;57;16
John Harris
So this is harbingers new series hybrid platform. Okay. And this is really about having your cake and eating it too. Really. So when we think about clean trucking, when we think about the products in the market, I think historically you've had the option to get an electric product. And if that meets your needs, great. And if it doesn't like, that's it.
00;02;57;17 - 00;03;16;10
John Harris
There's nothing else for you. And there are certain use cases that we see a very clean fit. You know, the truck right there obviously that use cases is perfect for electrification because you have trucks going on fixed routes and short distances, etc.. But when we think about the new series cab, there's just a lot more use cases. There's people that want to do.
00;03;16;13 - 00;03;34;10
John Harris
400 miles a day that are going to have unpredictable routes. And to suit that, we've introduced this series hybrid. You know, I said this as a series hybrid. And I always want to use that word series because it's a very, very different experience than when we just say hybrid. So I think when I say hybrid, you think Prius and then you feel sad.
00;03;34;11 - 00;03;37;12
John Harris
Sure. And like that's not the driving experience we want people to have.
00;03;37;13 - 00;03;37;23
Jay Traugott
Right.
00;03;37;24 - 00;03;41;29
John Harris
Right. So this product is an electric vehicle plus a range extender.
00;03;42;01 - 00;03;47;25
Jay Traugott
That's it. That's an audience. What a range extender is. It's kind of a newer term to the it is okay.
00;03;47;25 - 00;04;04;13
John Harris
So this vehicle has the driving dynamics and the power of an EV. But it has the range of a combustion vehicle because in the back there's a gasoline engine with a 55 gallon tank. So the way that this works is as we're driving around, the engine is going to turn on and it's going to charge the battery.
00;04;04;16 - 00;04;05;10
Jay Traugott
Very interesting.
00;04;05;11 - 00;04;21;09
John Harris
It's not connected to the axle. It's not sized for peak power. If you wanted a vehicle like this, that was a combustion vehicle. You're probably going to have a 7.2l V8. Okay. That's what you'd get in an f 59. That's what you'd get in a big RV.
00;04;21;10 - 00;04;21;20
Jay Traugott
Sure.
00;04;21;22 - 00;04;26;14
John Harris
That's what you'd get in an M2. But this vehicle has a 1.6l engine.
00;04;26;16 - 00;04;28;06
Jay Traugott
Wow.
00;04;28;08 - 00;04;34;22
John Harris
And so when we think about what goes into a harbinger chassis, what makes a harbinger chassis what it is. It really comes down to these components.
00;04;34;23 - 00;04;36;29
Jay Traugott
Okay, what are these two exactly? What are we looking at?
00;04;37;00 - 00;04;40;18
John Harris
So what we're looking at right here is a harbinger edu or an electric drive unit.
00;04;40;22 - 00;04;41;06
Jay Traugott
Okay.
00;04;41;07 - 00;04;48;24
John Harris
So this unit behind me, this is pretty small. I think this is the electric motor, the differential and the transmission.
00;04;48;25 - 00;04;49;06
Jay Traugott
All in.
00;04;49;06 - 00;04;58;13
John Harris
One unit. All in one unit. This only weighs about 500 pounds. So with this unit, we're replacing everything in the engine bay and the majority of the rear axle.
00;04;58;13 - 00;05;02;03
Jay Traugott
With 500 pounds. Now what is that normally. What are they saving right there?
00;05;02;03 - 00;05;05;05
John Harris
About 3,000 pounds. Ballpark.
00;05;05;10 - 00;05;07;08
Jay Traugott
That's amazing. Miata right there. Right.
00;05;07;09 - 00;05;18;18
John Harris
So with this, we've got an electric motor right here. We've got a 450 horsepower electric motor. So we have a ton of power. We've got a transmission. So a single speed transmission. There's no shifting.
00;05;18;19 - 00;05;19;05
Jay Traugott
Okay.
00;05;19;07 - 00;05;30;16
John Harris
And we have the differential in the two outputs here. So that's all in that 500 pounds. And the output from this is not only 550 horsepower. It's more than 12,000ft pounds of torque.
00;05;30;19 - 00;05;32;20
Jay Traugott
Say that again 12,000 pound feet of torque.
00;05;32;21 - 00;05;34;03
John Harris
Right. Yes. The rear axle.
00;05;34;10 - 00;05;35;03
Jay Traugott
Wow.
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John Harris
So we've got more torque in this than you're typically going to find in a class eight. So that allows us to support 32% great ability at 30,000 pound G7. So we're taking the 26,000 pounds. We're building trailer tow capability as well. And we're supporting that on the 32% grade. And this is something we build in our facility in Orange County, California.
00;05;58;10 - 00;06;03;16
John Harris
So this is the only place where you're going to get this sort of content that's made in the US.
00;06;03;17 - 00;06;08;08
Jay Traugott
And it's a big deal when a manufacturer also produces their own key components. Oh, absolutely.
00;06;08;09 - 00;06;16;06
John Harris
I mean, this is a harbinger motor right here. And we're buying the copper and we're winding the motor in our facility. And it's a harbinger transmission as well.
00;06;16;07 - 00;06;20;23
Jay Traugott
So it was specifically built and design engineered for the vehicle from the get go.
00;06;20;24 - 00;06;37;03
John Harris
Correct. So this has only been engineered for a medium duty truck. It's not something that you can put in five different vehicles. So it's much more fit for purpose. So this is just more views of this. So this is the transmission taken out so you can see what's going on. Okay. And then this is a clear case where you can actually see what's going on inside the unit.
00;06;37;04 - 00;06;55;25
John Harris
Yeah. So if you look over here you can actually see how this transmission works. I'll turn it if you come around to this. Cool. So this is an actual transmission from one of our trucks. So if we look at this transmission, there's a few things we've done really differently. Yeah, we've eliminated high powered gears. We've eliminated needle bearings.
00;06;55;28 - 00;07;18;25
John Harris
We've moved to only super high efficiency components and all cylindrical gears. So the result is this unit is about 95% efficient. So it's just super, super high efficiency from the batteries to the tires. And that means that every battery gets us a little bit more range, which means we can put less batteries, which means the vehicle cost less, which means it weighs less.
00;07;18;26 - 00;07;21;23
John Harris
And all of these things have this sort of flywheel effect.
00;07;21;24 - 00;07;24;24
Jay Traugott
Our sales underway right now. What's starting price?
00;07;24;25 - 00;07;32;19
John Harris
The HC cab starts at 149. Okay. The strip chassis starts around 90. Okay. I have the exact number off the top of my.
00;07;32;19 - 00;07;35;18
Jay Traugott
Head, and everything is manufactured. Produced in California.
00;07;35;19 - 00;07;57;02
John Harris
So all the complete chassis are built in California. All the complete assembly happens here in the US as well. Very cool. We have about 60% US content. So we do have a global supply chain, but we do have more US content I think, than anyone else building electric trucks in particular. Okay. And that's set to go up over time pretty soon with our battery supply.
00;07;57;09 - 00;08;00;27
Jay Traugott
And what's his delivery time about from when they place the order till delivery.
00;08;00;27 - 00;08;10;27
John Harris
So we're starting delivery of the Cab in Q4. Okay. The strip chassis we generally will will deliver immediately. Okay. So we hold a stock cushion so that we can be very responsive to customers.
00;08;11;00 - 00;08;15;07
Jay Traugott
So John we just saw the HD series hybrid. Now what are we looking at right here.
00;08;15;08 - 00;08;32;18
John Harris
So now we're looking at a walk in van built on harbingers strip chassis. This looks basically like any other walking van. Difference is that it's an electric vehicle. This one specifically was built by Morgan Olson, which is one of our two major outfit partners in this area. And this is a vehicle with a range of about 180 miles.
00;08;32;25 - 00;08;40;14
John Harris
This is an all electric vehicle. This is what we launched with. And we're seeing a ton of demand for this product, in particular with fuel prices the way they are right now.
00;08;40;17 - 00;08;44;02
Jay Traugott
Have you been getting a lot more inquiries since the fuel prices have gone up?
00;08;44;02 - 00;08;51;09
John Harris
It's definitely picked up the pace. Okay. I think the scale of savings in this area is just staggeringly large.
00;08;51;10 - 00;09;01;29
Jay Traugott
What could you tell a fleet that is looking at that very problem right now? You're seeing the diesel prices. They haven't really explored electrification just yet, but they're starting to understand that they need to get that process started.
00;09;02;01 - 00;09;07;00
John Harris
Best time to start buying EVs. This one fuel is at $7 a gallon. There's going to be no better opportunity.
00;09;07;01 - 00;09;10;03
Jay Traugott
Cool. And what's the what's the output on this? The horsepower.
00;09;10;05 - 00;09;27;15
John Harris
Same drive unit. So it's the same. So this is actually a 100% common chassis okay. With the cab. So if you have a mixed fleet now you can actually have common sparing between walk in vans and box trucks. Very cool. Which is brand new for the industry. But for this one this is typically a relatively short range vehicle.
00;09;27;21 - 00;09;44;07
John Harris
The one that's sitting right here, this is our most compact version. This is a 150 inch wheelbase. Okay. And this one has the longest range we make in that size. Okay. So this is five battery packs 180 mile range. If you're doing 100 miles a day with this vehicle right now, and you're in one of the coastal states with particularly elevated prices.
00;09;44;08 - 00;09;45;01
Jay Traugott
Yes, sir.
00;09;45;02 - 00;09;48;00
John Harris
This is driving $25,000 a year in fuel.
00;09;48;00 - 00;09;53;11
Jay Traugott
Savings, 25 grand a year right there. That's right. You're saving in diesel fuel? That's right. Okay.
