When innovative EV charging startup FreeWire shut its doors last year, it looked like its clever, infrastructure-light EVSE concept might vanish along with it. Now, Orange EV has taken up the cause, and it’s bringing the battery-based charging tech back with an all-new name. Meet the Orange Juicer. (!)
The FreeWire concept was, if you’ll forgive the effusiveness, fantastic. Basically, they integrated a li-ion battery back into a vertical cabinet that could be effectively “trickle charged” with a standard 110 or 220 AC connection, then “dump” that charge into an EV very quickly – enabling up to 200 kW of DC fast charging without the need for expensive utility and infrastructure.
But, while most people the FreeWire concept might have great for rural gas stations that rarely saw EVs and didn’t need constant access to hundreds of kW of power, the engineers at Orange EV saw something different.
“As more customers accelerate adoption of Orange EV trucks and electrify other site equipment, we’ve seen infrastructure upgrades cause serious holdups,” Orange EV founder and president, Kurt Neutgens, told Charged. “The Orange Juicer solves that challenge, giving fleets a fast, scalable and cost-effective charging platform that utilizes existing on-site power.”
“Fast” is the key word here. As the lower TCO and improved uptime promises of Orange EV’s electric terminal tractors get proven out again and again by customers like DHL and YMX, more companies are turning to Orange to help electrify their operations – but getting adequate charging to their truck depots has slowed that growth.
“Limits on grid capacity are the most significant source of delay, especially when installing DC fast chargers,” writes Esther Conrad, Research Manager for the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. “Multiple jurisdictions, both large and small, reported long delays on the part of the utility to provide adequate electricity to a site. Timeframes can be on the order of months or even multiple years for large installations.”
Months or years is more than enough time for a skittish customer to second-guess an expensive vehicle fleet purchase, so Kurt Neutgens did what he apparently does best: found an engineering solution that was laser-focused on the problem, and acted.
Orange EV formed a new division called Optigrid, bought FreeWire’s battery-backed DC fast charging back from the brink, and repackaged it as the Orange Juicer to specifically address the problems facing fleets struggling to get adequate grid power to their sites.
The result is an EV charging solution that’s perfect for the way terminal trucks operate, and one that can be up and running in a matter of weeks instead of months or years.
“Fleet operators are tired of waiting on infrastructure that doesn’t match their electrification schedule,” said Tyler Phillipi, CEO of OptiGrid. “The Orange Juicer gives them the power to deploy today, with charging performance that rivals high-capacity systems but requires just a fraction of the grid input.”
The first Orange Juicers are expected to reach customer sites in Q4 of this year.
Electrek’s Take
Despite the progress made in recent years, there are still some wacky assumptions being made out there – from the idea that you must have on-site DC fast charging to successfully deploy an EV fleet to the even wackier notion that you need a dedicated charger for each EV. Orange, on the hand, doesn’t make such sweeping statements. Instead, they’re listening to customers’ needs, understanding what really needs to happen in order to successfully deploy their products, and delivering a better TCO with lower costs … even without government incentives.
“In a two-shift operation over a 10-year period, our customers are experiencing a $500,000 benefit per truck,” Neutgens told Freight Waves. “That’s full price, no incentives.”
Over at The Heavy Equipment Podcast, we had a chance to talk to Kurt ahead of last year’s ACT Expo for clean trucking. On the show (available here), Kurt explained how his experience at Ford helped inform his design ideology, and that the Orange EV was designed to be cost competitive with diesel options, even without subsidies.
Give it a listen, then let us know what you think of Orange EV’s holistic electrification solution for logistics fleets in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: OptiGrid, via Charged EV, FreightWaves.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
