Lightning Systems, Inc.
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Electric vehicles |
| Predecessor | Lightning Hybrids, LLC |
| Founded 📆 | 2008 in Loveland, USA |
| Founders 👔 |
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| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , United States |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Products 📟 |
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| Members | |
Number of employees | 53 |
| 🌐 Website | lightningsystems |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Lightning Systems, Inc.. [1] is a developer and manufacturer of electric drivetrains for commercial vehicles, based in Loveland, Colorado, USA. In addition to developing and producing electric drivetrains, it undertakes the installation of these into existing vehicle platforms, delivering electric, zero emission vans, shuttle buses, cargo trucks, motorcoaches and city transit buses, either as new vehicles or as “repowered” vehicles. Repowered vehicles are vehicles which have already operated with internal combustion engines and are subsequently converted to electric.
Technical methodology
Lightning Systems does not design new vehicles; instead, it creates drivetrains for widely used existing vehicles from major manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company. This approach has several advantages: these vehicles benefit from extensive existing sales, service and parts networks, and there is an established supply of after-market products such as cargo shelving, cargo lifts and wheelchair lifts.
Lightning Systems develops drivetrains for selected rear wheel drive commercial vehicles which employ a main drive shaft to a rear axle. By placing the electric traction motor and its attached gearbox or transmission such that the output flange mates with the existing drive shaft's front flange, the mechanical integrity of the drivetrain is maintained, and conversions can be carried out relatively quickly.
Battery packs, which contain battery modules which in turn contain lithium-ion cells, are generally mounted under the vehicle's body, alongside the chassis frame rails, though some implementations place some of the battery packs on the roof or in the cargo or luggage spaces. Placement depends on many factors, including available space, other vehicle or accessory components and weight distribution. The battery packs incorporate safety features at multiple levels, including but not limited to: Positive Temperature Coefficient elements to limit electric current at the cell level, thermal and mechanical isolation zones within modules, and an active-signal high voltage interlock loop (HVIL).
High voltage direct current interconnection from the batteries to the power distribution unit (PDU), from the PDU to the inverter and from the inverter to the traction motor is achieved with suitably rated copper cables with electrical, environmental and mechanical shielding.
All of Lightning Systems’ implementations incorporate thermal management of the battery packs, which is essential for optimal efficiency and battery longevity. This takes the form of a liquid-based cooling system which automatically cools or heats the battery packs according to a parallel connection scheme. Cooling can be achieved to ambient temperature using one or more radiators; or cooling can be achieved below ambient temperature using a chiller. Heating is achieved with a heater.
The electric traction motor used in the drivetrains is typically a three-phase permanent magnet motor which is driven by a power inverter which also operates as a variable-frequency drive. During deceleration events, the motor operates as a generator, which provides electrical regeneration which charges the batteries a small amount while slowing the vehicle. This behavior also reduces wear on the vehicle's brake components.
The control system for the electric drivetrain integrates fully with the host vehicle's systems, including the CAN bus. This results in a vehicle which is intuitive and safe to drive, with behaviors such as low-speed creep and hill-hold. In most cases, the stock dashboard instruments label is replaced with one that provides information on the electric system, such as batteries’ state of charge and regeneration activity.
Lightning Systems provides and operates a telematics service branded Lightning Analytics, which is implemented through the use of a dedicated 4G cellular modem on each vehicle. Many operational and diagnostic parameters, as well as GPS location data, are uploaded to Lightning's servers almost in real time. This allows, for example, a fleet operator to see the batteries’ state of charge of all the vehicles in a fleet.
Vehicles
At the time of writing, Lightning Systems produces electric drivetrains for the following vehicles:
- Ford Transit 350HD
- Ford E-450
- Ford F-59
- GM Chevrolet 6500XD Low Cab Forward truck
- Gillig city transit bus (repower)
In development:
- Ford F-550
- Van Hool T2145 motorcoach
History
Lightning Systems was founded as Lightning Hybrids in 2008 to develop a passenger vehicle to compete in the 2010 Automotive X Prize for a highly efficient sports sedan. The approach taken was to equip an existing gasoline vehicle's drive train with a hydraulic hybrid regenerative braking system. The vehicle platform selected for development was the Mazda Miata. A prototype, designated LH4, included a custom-made fiberglass body shell.
Abandoning the passenger car concept as too expensive to bring to market, the company focused on developing the hydraulic hybrid system as a retrofit subsystem for commercial trucks and buses. Implemented with a parallel hybrid architecture, the hybrid system used hydropneumatic energy storage in the form of a fiberglass-over-aluminum high pressure accumulator vessel containing a Neoprene bladder pre-charged with dry nitrogen gas under pressure. Using a clutched gearbox, the system engaged with the vehicle's main drive shaft during braking and acceleration events. During braking events, the hybrid system captured kinetic energy from the vehicle's motion to pump hydraulic fluid into the accumulator, compressing the bladder and pressurizing the nitrogen gas, and slowing the vehicle. During acceleration events, the pressurized hydraulic fluid was passed through the hydraulic pump/motor to place torque onto the drive shaft, thereby providing motive power to the vehicle. This assisted the vehicle's acceleration by redeploying energy captured during the braking phase. By reducing the amount of torque demanded from the internal combustion engine, the hybrid system's overall effect was to reduce fuel consumption and emissions for vehicles which experienced frequent stops and starts in their duty cycle.
While the hydraulic hybrid technology was effective and innovative, market adoption was slow so the company turned its attention to electric drivetrains in 2017, rebranding to Lightning Systems in the process. It remained registered as Lightning Hybrids, LLC until January 1st 2020 when it became incorporated as Lightning Systems, Inc. Lightning Systems is a privately held company.
Previously headquartered in a historic building on Cleveland Avenue in downtown Loveland with a separate workshop facility four blocks away, Lightning Systems relocated in 2017 to Building A of the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation and Technology, formerly a Hewlett-Packard campus in Loveland. Initially leasing less than half of the building, the company extended the lease to include the whole of Building A (140,000 sq ft) in December 2019.
References
This article "Lightning Systems, Inc." is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Lightning Systems, Inc.. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ "Lightning Systems website". Lightning Systems, Inc.
