The crush of demand for so-called last-mile deliveries accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic has led a leading builder of commercial vehicles and chassis to create a brand for a new slate of battery-electric offerings.
The Shyft Group, based in the Detroit suburb of Novi, Mich., announced Wednesday it has created the new Blue Arc EV Solutions Brand. Its first three products to be sold under that brand are a purpose-built commercial EV chassis, a fully-built Class 3 electric walk-in delivery van and a mobile recharging unit called Power Cube.
Shyft CEO Daryl Adams discussed the company's move with Forbes.com ahead of its official unveiling of Blue Arc and its initial products at the NTEA Work Truck Week trade show in Indianapolis. He explained the creation of both Blue Arc and its EV product line grew out of demand from Shyft's customers and his company's inability to find an appropriate chassis.
“We had on our drawing board a new look for an ICE (internal combustion engine) walk-in van,” Adams explained. “We took those drawings and moved on to a Blue Arc vehicle, we redesigned it, made it look more futuristic but keeping in mind the customer use case. We designed it, started in June...had a working product driving in December.”
While Shyft has decades of experience in creating commercial vehicles and chassis, Adams said they had none in software development, a key requirement for developing EVs. The company originally sought to outsource its software but instead bought it from a west coast company and hired software engineers on staff.
The reasoning was simple, said Adams. “If we're going to move up to Class 4, 5 we're always going to have to tweak it.”
The Blue Arc EV chassis features a customizable length and wheelbase to match the requirements of a variety of medium-duty trucks. Lithium-ion batteries provide a 150 to 175 miles driving range but that can be extended through several battery options.
The Blue Arc delivery van is a battery-electric Class 3 commercial delivery vehicle designed specifically for last-mile delivery fleets that make lots of stops. Available in lengths ranging from 14 to 18 feet, its cargo area has 635-800 feet of storage and load capacity of up to 5,000 pounds.
The delivery van also features an integrated solar roof package and lightweight aluminum honeycomb shelving package 175 pounds lighter than current models.
After initial production of pilot vehicles Shyft plans to build up to 500 Blue Arc vehicles a year at its Plymouth, Mich. research and development center with the first deliveries of production vehicles to customers during the second half of 2023 Adams said.
Once demand grows beyond the 500 unit threshold the company will add production of up to 2,500 vehicles at a new plant “somewhere in the southeast,” according to Adams. Expansion plans then include plants on the west coast and Midwest, he said, because “the EV (recharging) infrastructure is not there yet so we need to be closer to customer to save on the freight costs.”
Recharging the battery-powered electric vehicles is the third cog in the Blue Arc brand line with the introduction of the Power Cube. It's a mobile, remote controlled battery-powered charging station.
“You can plug it into a building and charge it during the day when the vehicles are out, so when the vehicles come back they can take the power off that,” explained Adams. “We saw an opportunity and we wanted to solve the problem.”
Shyft also announced Wednesday the North Carolina-based Randy Marion Automotive Group would be the first U.S. dealer to offer the Blue Arc Class 3 delivery van.
“The EV walk-in delivery van is going to be one-of-a-kind in the market because nobody else currently has the capability to manufacture both the chassis and the bodies like Blue Arc,” said Brad Sigmon, vice president of sales at Randy Marion Automotive Group in a statement.
Among Shyft's major customers are UPS, United States Postal Service, Puralator, Amazon and Fed Ex, Adams said. Vehicle production stoppages and slowdowns caused by both the Covid-19 pandemic and global semiconductor chip shortage upset plans by many delivery companies to either expand their fleets or replace aging vehicles according to Adams.
Their dilemma, he said, has created a potentially lucrative opportunity for Shyft’s new electric Blue Arc brand that's likely to extend beyond the current troubles declaring, “they lost almost two years of replacement cycle so they have to catch those up, then they have all the growth they have to catch up so it's almost snowballing. We feel we're in a good spot for the next five years.”
