Welcomed at end of the 19th century as the solution to the severe problem of horse manure in city streets, electric trucks soon became the norm for short-haul commercial deliveries. Though reliable, they were gradually replaced by gasoline-powered trucks for long-haul deliveries—although a fleet of electric milk trucks survived in Great Britain into the 1960s.
Industrial electric vehicles never disappeared from factories and ports. During the past decade, with the availability of the lithium-ion battery, the electric truck is back on the road for all payloads and all distances. The fourth in a series covering the history and future of electric transport, this book chronicles the work of the innovative engineers who perfected e-trucks large and small.

Kevin Desmond, a technology historian and biographer, lives near Bordeaux in southern France. Since 1976, he has published 33 books and 300-plus articles on the men and women innovators, often forgotten, behind the progress of transport and related subjects.

Kevin Desmond
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 269
Bibliographic Info: 89 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7615-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3618-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Foreword by Umberto de Pretto 1
Prelude 3
One • Pioneers 7
Two • Outside the USA 50
Three • Inter-War Years 71
Four • SOVELs to TAMAs 102
Five • “Drinka Pinta Milka Day!” 113
Six • The OPEC Effect 139
Seven • The ­Lithium-Ion Advantage 162
Eight • In Recent Months—2016 to Present 170
Nine • Start-Ups Out of a Driverless Future 199
Appendix A: Trolley Trucks and Electrified Roads 223
Appendix B: Speed Records 230
Appendix C: Antique and Classic Truck Conservation 233
Appendix D: Electric Truck and Battery Builders (Past and Present) 243
Chapter Notes 245
Bibliography 251
Index 253

• “There’s history and tech woven into nine chapters covering the beginnings to the driverless future. This is a well-researched book”—SAH Journal

• “A unique and extraordinarily informative study…recommended”—Midwest Book Review