INDUSTRY-SHAPING TECHNOLOGY, DECADES IN THE MAKING.
EVs are here. The question is: How will work get powered when there is no transmission power-takeoff (PTO) to connect to?
As former industry leaders attempt to navigate the EV technology landscape to develop a workable product, Viatec has been at the forefront of this technology for nearly a decade.
Today, Viatec is at the leading-edge of electrifying work, providing an elegant solution in a previously failing product category. Our product team has been working towards this moment for years—in the case of our chief technology officer Neeraj Chirmulay, it’s been his entire career.
The Genesis of Our Expertise
Long before Viatec came to be, Neeraj got his start with an EV manufacturer in the heavy-duty vehicle sector called Proterra. He got his feet wet as an important part of the team that introduced an all-electric powertrain that’s now used by many notable bus manufacturers—VanHool, and Freightliner to name a few.
EV Technology that Works Smarter
Building on his experience with Proterra, Neeraj went from system-level ownership within heavy-duty EV manufacturing to vehicle-level ownership for another EV company in the heavy-duty space, called Dannar. Supporting the work and vision of company founder, Gary Dannar, Neeraj acted as engineering lead to produce a working prototype for a first-of-its-kind, all-electric, off-highway work machine.
Viatec is Born
As a founding member of Viatec, Neeraj brought learnings and expertise from engineering incredibly powerful, all-electric powertrain systems to leading a small EV team.
It’s no wonder that he and the product team succeeded where others fell short, when they introduced Viatec’s first product: SmartPTO.
In 2015, the team connected with electric motorcycle leaders Zero Motorcycles, who provided the final missing piece of the puzzle with their field-tested and proven EV technology. By taking the Zero powertrain and placing it in a box on a truck, Viatec solved critical performance and reliability issues with the power source. Couple this with minimal integration on any truck, and the product team found a winning formula for powering work.
Now that EVs are hitting the market, the key point is this: Since SmartPTO essentially already connects to an EV-in-a-box, Viatec is primed to power any work on any EV chassis.
Looking Ahead
Recently, the Viatec team has been working with industry leaders International Trucks, Terex Corporation, and others to outfit all-electric work trucks with SmartPTO.
Right now, all-electric trucks aren’t relied upon to drive and power PTO systems. Range anxiety prevents manufacturers and operators from entrusting an EV battery to get their work truck to a job site, run a PTO system on the job, and return to base all on a single charge. Viatec’s product team developed the perfect solution for the near term, creating a self-contained and self-sufficient ePTO with its own battery.
In the future, as EV range improves and truck batteries are able to power work as well, the Viatec product is ready. The only difference being, which EV the Viatec products connect to: theirs or the truck. Any takers on whether Viatec is getting ahead of the curve on these longer range EVs, looking to move from an EV-in-a-box to a box-on-an-EV?
When that time comes and EV batteries reach that level of performance potential, Viatec’s power take off systems will be waiting to meet them there.