Thinking electric. Smesh E-Axle and the new standard for heavy-duty e-truck powertrains

Smesh E-Axle is the result of an entrepreneurial idea started in the Netherlands in 2018, aiming to deeply change the way to approach electric powertrains for heavy-duty trucks (have a look at our brand-new platform Sustainable Truck&Van). According to the company’s idea, only simplicity leads to sustainable solutions and, above all, in order to take advantage of the massive efficiency gains that can be made it is time to break with the traditional truck powertrain.

Building an electric truck which can compete with a diesel is not as simple as strapping a big electric motor to a vehicle that was originally designed for a diesel engine. A brand-new concept is needed and the team of professionals with different backgrounds and extensive experience in the trucking industry is working to put all these ideas to the ground.

The starting point, then, is that today’s ‘sustainable’ trucks do not operate more efficiently that traditional diesel trucks, losing around 70 percent of energy in the powertrain.

The Smesh E-Axle will be soon officially tested

Smesh E-Axle has developed a brand-new powerful and compact powertrain, capable to maintain high efficiency no matter what energy carrier is used. The prototype has undergone several internal tests and some more external and field tests will be carried out in the next few months. This summer, in particular, the Smesh E-Axle will first be officially tested by the independent automotive research laboratory Greenmot, and then built into a truck to prove it in practice.

Right after such testing phase, we’ll publish and in-depth interview with experts from the Smesh group in order to better understand how the revolutionary system works as well as talk about the next steps and possible applications.

Two electric motors and an eight-speed automatic transmission

Its compact and modular all-in-1 architecture makes the entire powertrain in front of the rear axle redundant, thus eliminating right-angle hypoid gears and all parts that produce drag and efficiency losses. The powertrain has two electric motors and an eight-speed automatic transmission fully integrated into the rear axle. 

According to the Dutch start-up, in combination with the patented SmeshGear technology, the available power is used as efficiently as possible and only at nominal load. All this results in real world energy consumption cut in half and, while using smaller motors, the Smesh-E-Axle is stronger than a diesel and three times stronger than electric trucks. This causes a chain reaction of mutually reinforcing benefits making it technically and economically feasible to electrify heavy-duty trucks in a sustainable way.