Motiv Chassis Gets CARB Emissions Exemption

Motiv Power Systems has received an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) certifying its Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) family for use in Class 4-7 commercial vehicle applications.

The Foster City, Calif.-based company is reportedly the first Tier 1 supplier of a CARB-certified all-electric stripped chassis. EPIC chassis are certified for the entirety of their service life, requiring no further emissions testing.  

With CARB certification, finished vehicles built on the EPIC chassis are eligible for state and federal grant and subsidy sources, netting savings of around $100,000 per vehicle in California and New York, said Motiv.

“Prior to the introduction of Motiv’s EPIC chassis, final stage vehicle builders, which comprise the majority of the medium-duty fleet market, couldn’t transition to electric without going through an arduous certification process of their own,” said Urvi Nagrani, director of Business Development for Motiv Power Systems. “Additionally, reconfiguring a previously approved application required going through a re-certification process. With this CARB certification of the entire EPIC chassis family, Motiv is taking that regulatory burden off of builders and owning it ourselves.”

The EPIC chassis’ use of passenger car batteries ensures long service life and inexpensive replacement costs while over-the-air software updates deliver new features and functionality.

“Because California emissions regulations are the most stringent nationwide, they are implemented by 20 other states. This means vehicles built on the EPIC chassis can be deployed anywhere in the U.S., a major plus for fleet programs operating nationally,” said Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems. “This CARB certification means manufacturers of commercial truck and bus bodies can easily drop EPIC Chassis onto their existing production lines in order to offer all-electric versions of their existing vehicles.”

Motiv said the technology integrated into the EPIC all-electric chassis is already in use in Fortune 50 fleet deployments nationwide and has logged more than 350,000 miles on the road.