Watch a Diesel-Electric Edison Semi Truck Drag a WWII Tank Like It's Nothing

If you care enough about semi trucks to click on this blog, you might be tired of electric cars. Or, if you care enough about electric cars to click on this blog, you might be tired of diesel big rigs. Either way, there's a new Canadian company called Edison that's building its own battery-powered workhorse a lot differently from Tesla. Its wheels are driven solely by electric motors, but there's a 9.3-liter Caterpillar diesel under the hood that keeps the batteries charged and the trailer rolling. It's pretty smart, and as you can see here, the prototype can move 100,000 pounds without a problem.

There's a constant debate online over whether this is an electric truck or a hybrid, but I'm not here to settle that. Instead, let's just focus on the fundamentals. Edison co-founders Chace Barber and Eric Little actually ordered a Tesla Semi in 2017, but after four years of waiting, they decided to build their own future-proof heavy-duty machine. While they also make a living by swapping electrified powertrains into used logging trucks, the Edison L-Series is billed as their flagship product.

The scratch-built semi will be offered in two specs—the L500, which has two drive axles, and the L750, which has three. Power scales up with each drive axle, so the base truck offers 670 horsepower while the top dog makes 1,005 hp. The Caterpillar engine powers a Danfoss T2000 generator, which sends AC juice to the inverters that are mounted behind the cab in the headache rack. From there, DC current flows to the direct-drive motors at each rear axle.