Harbinger announced its official launch and unveiled a new electric vehicle (EV) platform poised to transform the medium-duty industry. Founded to bring modernization and fresh thinking to the electrification market, Harbinger’s products will include stripped chassis and cab chassis. Harbinger designed its products to address performance, durability, and lifespan expectations required in Class 4 to Class 7 vehicles.
“Medium-duty vehicles serve as the backbone of the commercial transportation industry and are responsible for delivering tens of millions of packages and critical services every day,” says John Harris, Harbinger CEO. “But while this industry has experienced tremendous growth, fleet customers today face acute shortages of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, and any meaningful supply of production-ready EV offerings is still years out. We are solving this problem head on.”
Harbinger projects electric platform production to scale significantly over the next five years. It expects the first vehicles in customers’ hands in late 2023, followed by the launch of volume production in 2024.
FRESH THINKING PROVIDES FOUNDATIONAL ADVANTAGES
This past year, a team of EV passenger car veterans have developed a medium-duty powertrain and chassis. The goal was to overhaul an industry still running on half-century-old technology. Current EV solutions in the medium-duty space offer only incremental improvements, largely by retrofitting popular internal combustion engine (ICE) products. But, Harbinger grounded its suite of in-house developed EV solutions in road-tested passenger EV technologies. They enable a new paradigm in chassis architecture, focused on electrification and improvements in vehicle operation, safety, and driver ergonomics.
Harbinger’s EV solutions feature:
- A proprietary eAxle at the heart of the vehicle, which combines the motor, inverter, and gearbox into an integrated unit. This approach improves energy efficiency as well as lowers cost and brings critical safety improvements by enabling the battery systems to be positioned entirely inside the frame.
- A liquid-cooled battery pack engineered for superior performance, lower cost, and a supplier-agnostic sourcing strategy. The pack design also takes advantage of cutting edge casting technology to provide improved battery durability, safety, and lifespan.
- A new driver-focused chassis architecture designed to improve safety, driver experience, and productivity through drive-by-wire steering and enhancements to vehicle ergonomics. In addition, a novel front suspension reduces vehicle overhang, improving driver visibility and vehicle maneuverability.
VEHICLES REIMAGINED
Harbinger reimagined and engineered every element of its medium-duty EV to deliver category-defining attributes, including:
- 800V liquid cooled battery system, with capacity scalable in 35kWh increments
- Best-in-class floor height below 28 inches
- Designed for 20-year, 450,000-mile standard operating life
- Independent front suspension with rack-type steering
- Autonomous-ready with steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire
- Segment-leading safety and driver assistance features
- One-hour DC fast charging capability
- Zero price acquisition premium over today’s equivalent gas- and diesel-powered vehicles
“This industry is performing on decades-old technology that makes its daily rigors nearly unbearable for drivers and concentrates emissions of harmful pollutants in highly populated, residential, and business areas where they most acutely affect human health. We can no longer sit idle and watch that happen,” Harris says. “The reality is that technologies developed for the passenger or heavy-duty vehicle industries simply cannot be repurposed for the medium-duty segment.”
Eliminating adoption barriers as well as offering a seamless connection to the industry’s current operations, Harbinger built its scalable stripped chassis to support the medium-duty body types available today. These include commercial walk-in vans, RVs, box trucks, and other medium-duty vehicles.
PRICED TO COMPETE WITH ZERO ACQUISITION PREMIUM
Harbinger was founded on the idea that for cleaner vehicles to become ubiquitous, a competitive EV solution must be offered at a comparable cost of ICE vehicles. Therefore, unlike other commercial EVs, Harbinger’s electric platform will carry zero price acquisition premium relative to gas- and diesel-powered alternatives.
“Better technology often comes with outrageous price tags, and we’re seeing today’s medium-duty EVs performing for half the life of today’s ICE vehicles at triple the cost,” Harris explains. “Our technology was developed from scratch in order to control top level chassis cost.”
Harbinger achieved this by leveraging strong existing supplier relationships as well as concentrating efforts on in-house development of key vehicle systems. This allows the company to eliminate costly third-party battery and powertrain system premiums. Harbinger also designed its chassis to scale. Modular battery pack and wheelbase configurations meet the needs of both last mile delivery operators—who typically drive fewer than 100 miles per day—as well as RV and other commercial and specialty vehicle customers that demand different performance requirements.
Ultimately, Harbinger customers stand to enjoy more than just the benefits of a price competitive vehicle. As with all EVs, customers can expect a reduced cost of ownership over the lifetime of the vehicle; this is thanks to reduced fuel and maintenance costs.
“The cost effectiveness of the platform is a baseline, not a sacrifice,” Harris says. “Our platform will offer an enhanced level of efficiency, durability, safety, and performance over our competition and can be sold at a better price point because of our advantages of in-house component design and vertically integrated approach. This is how EVs should be built.”
DEEP EXPERIENCE
Led by co-founders John Harris, Phillip Weicker, and Will Eberts, Harbinger’s team includes EV specialists with decades of experience across the automotive, aerospace, and battery technology industries.
Find out more, visit www.harbingermotors.com.
