Trailer Electrification: solutions to Battery Electric TRU adoption

Barriers and future solutions to Battery Electric TRU (BETRU) adoption

The electrification of trailer refrigeration units continues to progress, but significant barriers exist as it relates to runtime reliability, incremental unit cost, operations adjustments, and charging infrastructure.

Transition timing will likely be tied to the broader trucking industries’ transition to electric as that transition will bring with it equipment and infrastructure subsidies, battery cost reductions and performance improvements, and learnings on operations adjustments. The industry will need to fail early and often to learn what it means to operate a BETRU paired with an electric tractor, but these early learnings will pave the way for a broad transition within the next 20 years.

With that said, fleets that have transitioned to more shore-power-based usage will benefit from a system that is shore-power optimized and bypasses the engine altogether due to the higher electrical efficiency of inputting power directly at the compressor itself.

Learn more about our all-electrified evolve™ product line.