Battery maker Octillion Power Systems will supply advanced lithium-ion batteries to Brazilian manufacturer FNM (Fábrica Nacional de Mobilidades) for the production of 1,000 electric trucks for beverage maker Ambev. Octillion and FNM announced their partnership in October 2020. (Earlier post.)

Ambev will use the electric trucks to deliver beverages throughout South America. A subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Ambev announced that it will deploy the 1,000 electric delivery vehicles by the end of 2021.

FNM recently entered into a contract of technical and industrial cooperation with Agrale, the only 100% Brazilian vehicle manufacturer. Agrale has been on the Brazilian and international market for nearly 60 years. As a part of this launch, they are partnering with FNM and Ambev to invest in clean technologies for fleet vehicles.

FNM was formed in late 2019 and has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. FNM opened its EV factory inside Agrale’s manufacturing facility in Caxias do Sul city in southeast Brazil. This joint effort leverages Agrale’s existing fully integrated, mass-production line for commercial vehicles, with a capacity to produce 150 to 200 trucks per day.

FNM’s electric drivetrain integration line is being woven seamlessly inside of Agrale’s production line to ensure a fast ramp up. The collaborative effort will produce the FNM model 832, a Class 6 truck with up to 14-ton capacity, and the FNM model 833, a Class 8 truck with an 18-ton payload capacity. Future plans include electric buses, vans and tractors.

The FNM 833 is being deployed by Ambev. It features Octillion’s 650-volt battery and and Danfoss Editron’s drivetrains. The new truck will be able to travel up to 700 kilometers between charges.

Octillion’s modular, high-energy density batteries are cooled by chilled water. At the end of their 10-year service life in the trucks, the battery modules do not need to be recycled, since they can be repurposed for other uses, such as for storage for large solar arrays.

Using a Wallbox charger with a CCS2 outlet the trucks can be fully recharged in up to four hours. The Wallbox is connected to 380-volt charger inside Ambev’s distribution centers, which are located all over Brazil and already operate with solar power.

The Danfoss Editron drivetrain systems feature a 250-kW motor with an Eaton multi-speed transmission. They are also fitted with a digital avionics controller and inverter to enable the intelligent management of all the vehicle’s operations.

FNM was one of the finalists in the first edition of the Ambev Aceleratora 100+ program, in 2019, with this electric truck project. Since then, the companies have been working together on innovations and technologies that aim to deliver sustainable and efficient solutions both for Ambev’s own logistics program and also for other local and international clients.

Ambev has stated that it wants at least half of its Brazilian fleet to operate on clean energy by 2023. The brewing company has more than 7,000 trucks in its Brazilian fleet, which are used to distribute beer and other beverages across Brazil, South America’s largest economy. Each of the model FNM 833 electric trucks will represent a reduction of 126,000 kilos of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere per year.