MONTREAL — Montreal truck-electrification company Effenco is launching a wirelessly charged, fully electric propulsion system for heavy-duty trucks, and its upfront costs will be similar to the diesel-powered equivalent. 

Founded in 2006, Effenco specializes in a hybrid retrofit solution for garbage trucks and other heavy-duty “stop-start” vehicles. The system results in reduced wear and up to 30 per cent in fuel savings when installed, according to the company. Effenco has sold 400 systems around the world, including a recent order for 157 trucks to Derichebourg Environnement, a Paris-based waste and recycling-recovery company.

Effenco uses an ultracapacitor, a key part of the retrofit, to power its fully electric system. Also known as a supercapacitor, ultracapacitors store electricity as a static charge rather than as an electrochemical reaction, as with lithium-ion batteries. Ultracapacitors charge faster, last longer and are less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts. 

Effenco customers will partner with truck manufacturers to install the electric-propulsion systems instead of internal-combustion engines, the company’s president David Arsenault said. 

Because the propulsion systems cost the same as diesel engines and have roughly half the maintenance costs associated with fossil-fuel power, Arsenault said he expects most of his existing 50 clients to adopt the new solution.

“We’ve always been able to migrate the new generations. It’s just natural, they grow with us. Like when Apple releases a new iPhone, chances are you might get the new one,” Arsenault said. 

Effenco has raised a total of US$22.64 million to date, according to PitchBook data. That includes an US$11.8-million Series A round in September 2020 with investment from the Business Development Bank of Canada, Investissement Québec, Sustainable Development Technology Canada and Arsenault himself, along with a private investor who didn’t want to be identified. 

Arsenault said the company’s next raise—the sum of which he wouldn’t divulge—will close in the spring.

The global terminal-tractor market is expected to grow by just over four per cent annually to US$869 million by 2028, according to a Data Bridge Market Research report.

Because ultracapacitors can’t store nearly the same power as lithium-ion batteries, Effenco’s system suits high-use, low-mileage, fleet-based transportation with set routes, such as terminal tractors in ports.

Effenco said wireless-charging stations will be installed along customers’ routes, where idle vehicles can charge in about five minutes. In some applications, supercapacitors can reach full-load capacity in a matter of seconds.