Homtruck, a new electric semi-truck has been launched by China’s Geely. Faizron Auto, Geely’s commercial vehicle group, is planning to roll out the vehicle in 2024 and the company will target international markets as well.
This launch comes at a time when Tesla has delayed the production of a similar electric vehicle, the Tesla Semi till 2023, which was supposed to release in 2017. Mercedes and Warren Buffett-backed BYD have also announced their own electric trucks, according to a report by CNBC.
The Homtruck will have two power options, Methanol Hybrid and Pure Electric. Methanol-powered batteries are a technology that Geely has been investing in for a few years and its also providing this power option in some of its models. Farizon also stated that the Homtruck’s batteries can also be swapped out, which cuts down on the need to wait for charging. The company said that the interiors consist of a shower and toilet, single bed, refrigerator, kitchen area, and a small washing machine.
The Homtruck is built with autonomous driving in mind, with autonomous driver-less features. Vehicles also have the ability to communicate with each other for maintaining safe speed and distance. In the exclusive covered by CNBC Mike Fan, CEO, Geely commercial vehicle group, said that “Geely plans to introduce autonomous driving in three phases. By 2023, the company hopes to have some partial driverless features with more advanced systems by 2026. Geely plans to achieve full autonomy in 2030.” Rumors are also rife that Geely will collaborate with Huawei to integrate the HarmonyOS into its vehicles.
Notably, the production of Homtruck could face a challenge due to the ongoing global chip shortage which however the company feels is a seasonal phenomenon.
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