eTrailer

Modular electric drive system for heavy vehicles

With fuel consumption typically accounting for around 30% of a fleet’s operating cost, the commercial transport industry has an obvious incentive to improve fuel efficiency over and above a desire to reduce emissions. Today, energy loss remains the major contributor to fuel inefficiency. An integral part of ZF’s global research and development program focuses on optimising energy recovery and reducing vehicle weight. 

The eTrailer delivers renewable energy by recuperating kinetic energy from braking or deceleration and downhill manoeuvres that would otherwise be wasted into heat. This breakthrough semitrailer with integrated electric drive system can make every conventional truck a hybrid, saving up to 16% fuel thus significantly reducing CO2 emissions. The noise reduction that comes along with the trailer electrification helps for better acceptance on parking lots and during urban and night delivery. 

The eTrailer integrates e-drive controls into the trailer and therewith integrated e-drive capabilities in the overall truck and trailer electronic braking system. This ensures optimal effectiveness of energy recuperation while maintaining safety and stability of complete vehicle combination at all times. The stored energy also enables unprecedented, revolutionary traction functionalities when using the torque of the eAxle to improve road and vehicle safety. 

Supplying the electric power for cooling units of refrigerated vehicles helps with further emission and CO2 savings and enables downsizing of supportive diesel onboard engines, e.g. by powering a refrigeration unit for up to 12 hours without any external supply. 

The eTrailer works with any truck as it can turn a traditional truck-trailer combination into hybrids and is also a complementary solution to electrified trucks. Here the eTrailer can extend the range of the hybrid tractor and offers the possibility to downsize the electrical installation.