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FPT Industrial introduced the acquisition of a minority stake in Blue Power Industrial Automobiles Personal Ltd, a zero-emission truck expertise firm headquartered in Pune, India, engaged within the manufacturing of fresh vitality vehicles below the model Blue Power Motors.
Earlier in 2022, the 2 firms had signed an settlement to provide Liquified Pure Gasoline (LNG) vehicles in India for the native market. And just lately Blue Power launched its first LNG-fueled vehicles rolling off manufacturing in its Chakan plant, Pune, India. The autos are 55-ton heavy-duty truck (much like the 44-ton autos in Europe) powered by FPT N67 NG engines compliant with BS6 (Bharat Stage Emission Requirements).
Anirudh Bhuwalka, Blue Power Motors’ CEO (left) and Sylvain Blaise, President Iveco Group Powertrain Enterprise Unit (proper), in entrance of the 55-ton heavy-duty truck powered by an FPT N67 NG engine operating on LNG
Anirudh Bhuwalka, Blue Power Motors’ CEO, emphasised how Blue Power Motors are the primary to launch an LNG truck in India. “The entire vary will ultimately cowl 46-, 50- and 55-ton autos,” he added.
The FPT N67 NG engine is a six-cylinder in line configuration with 6.7-L displacement and stuck geometry turbocharger with wastegate valve. It delivers a most energy output of 206 kW at 2000 r/min and 1000 Nm torque at 1250 r/min.
FPT stated, the engine is essentially the most highly effective pure fuel unit in the marketplace and suitable with CNG, LNG and biomethane gasoline; the N67 NG makes use of stoichiometric combustion to guarantee best-in-class gasoline consumption and decrease noise than diesel engines, with as much as 40% gasoline expense discount versus diesel equivalents within the Indian market and 28% much less CO2 emissions.
The corporate’s imaginative and prescient for LNG truck manufacturing entails partnerships with world-class suppliers resembling FPT Industrial; the vehicles characteristic Meritor axles and Eaton transmissions, amongst others.
In accordance with Bhuwalka two features of the Indian financial system make it a pretty marketplace for LNG vehicles: “Initially, there are 3.5 million heavy-duty vehicles driving on Indian highways, emitting 450-million-ton CO2 yearly.” That could be a huge downside to be addressed and Bhuwalka thinks the one mature and versatile expertise obtainable now could be LNG. “LNG-fueled autos dramatically cut back air pollution but in addition supply game-changing working prices, that are a key proposition in India the place shopping for choices are a lot pushed by whole price of possession. This expertise will assist in the transition interval to full decarbonization.”
The second facet is that in India electrification is taking heart stage for a lot of industries together with automotive, however the market of industrial quality vehicles is simply not prepared for the adoption of full electrical options but. “Blue Power Motors consider in a blended answer that has to contemplate infrastructure growth too,” commented Bhuwalka. “We’re partnering with an organization that installs LNG fuelling stations. It would sound very shocking, but it surely has been calculated that the entire of India freeway community might be serviced with 30 fuelling stations for heavy-duty vehicles. Actually, our vehicles will characteristic a 1000-L LNG tank, giving the automobile an incredible autonomy.”
Bhuwalka added although that greater than 1 000 LNG stations are being deliberate by totally different firms, with a purpose to meet demand from the automotive market. “India is transferring quick to develop into a gas-based financial system within the transition to finish zero emissions.”
Though these vehicles will primarily cowl the Indian market to start out with, Bhuwalka admits that there are 28 nations on the planet which have potential for exporting these LNG vehicles (thanks additionally to the very demanding emissions requirements in India), so some exporting exercise will not be dominated out sooner or later.
By way of productiveness, Bhuwalka defined the fairly attention-grabbing mannequin on which Blue Power Motors’ manufacturing relies: the micro-factory mannequin. “In accordance with this mannequin, we are able to open a ten 000-truck manufacturing facility in document time wherever on the planet.” The primary manufacturing facility has been opened in Pune with an annual manufacturing capability of 10 000 autos and presently employs 60 individuals.
Even the method to market of Blue Power Motors is fairly distinctive: the corporate has no sellers and all its gross sales are direct. Additionally, all service facilities are owned by the corporate.
“We wish to place ourselves because the Apple of trucking: we do engineering, design, provide chain, procurement, integration, financing, and repair. What we don’t is value-added manufacturing.”
On the doable hiccups of a method based mostly utterly on exterior suppliers, particularly within the present scenario of parts shortages and delays in supply, Bhuwalka defined that India is presently clocking its highest numbers for automotive gross sales in each automobile class: 3.5 million vehicles per yr and 15 million two-wheelers, for instance. “This led to an enormous localization in India of the entire suppliers’ base, which implies the issues associated to produce bottlenecks are lower than what different areas of the world are experiencing.
FPT Industrial’s feedback
Sylvain Blaise, President Iveco Group Powertrain Enterprise Unit, commented to DPi on the partnership between FPT Industrial and Blue Power Motors: “This settlement is of the utmost significance for FPT Industrial, now and sooner or later, as we wish our main applied sciences to play a key function to assist the ecological transition in one of many world’s largest automobile markets.”
Blaise has been appointed President in July 2021 and he admitted this time on the helm of the corporate has been a difficult one, particularly for what issues disruptions within the provider chain. “We begin to see indicators of enchancment, however it’s too early to see if time for concern is over,” he stated. “Among the many many challenges like sky-rocketing prices of uncooked supplies and vitality, this has been a really attention-grabbing time certainly from an operational perspective.”
“Regardless of these boundary circumstances, FPT Industrial is strongly engaged on its path to carbon emissions discount and continuing with the deliberate implementation. This consists of the event of a whole vary of e-powertrain options and the opening of the brand new plant for the manufacturing of batteries, central drives and electrical axles on the firm’s headquarter in Turin, Italy.”
The brand new ePowertrain plant in Turin assembles the eBS 37 battery pack with 37-kWh capability – a lithium-ion, water-cooled battery developed by Microvast for light-duty industrial autos and minibuses. From 2023, the plant is predicted to assemble additionally the eBS 69 battery sort for buses, a unit that will probably be put in within the Iveco Crossway Low Entry Electrical bus.
Additionally produced within the ePowertrain plant is the electrical central drive eCD 140, appropriate for minibuses and light-duty vehicles as much as 8 ton GVW. That includes one electrical motor delivering 140 kW peak energy and 1600 Nm peak torque, this part will probably be adopted by the brand new Iveco Each day Electrical van.
Lastly, the ePowertrain plant will ship the electrical axle eAX 840-R that has been designed for the Nikola Tre BEV heavy-duty truck, already in the marketplace within the USA. It options two electrical motors delivering peak energy of 840 kW and peak wheel torque of 45 000 Nm and is appropriate for heavy-duty industrial autos as much as 44 ton GVW.
Relating to the corporate’s sturdy dedication to gas-fuelled engine options, Blaise commented that fuel as a gasoline as at all times been in FPT Industrial’s DNA: “We now have labored on gas-fueled engines for the previous 20 years a minimum of. Gasoline is a robust asset in our product portfolio, and we consider inner combustion engine will nonetheless be a key half on the worldwide decarbonization path.”
“We see the way forward for inner combustion engines as versatile multi-fuel models that may assist in the transition to different new applied sciences, which for now are transferring at very totally different introduction paces,” he added. “Leveraging on our know-how in fuel combustion may also be key to the transition to hydrogen when the time will probably be prepared.”
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