Tropos reveals two compact concept trucks
January 21th, 2020
Panasonic in collaboration with Tropos Motors revealed two production-ready compact utility commercial vehicles.
The fleet truck concepts are powered by Panasonic’s proprietary software and cloud services platform OneConnect and represent a more accessible and a more agile fleet approach for tight or last-mile spaces.
“The goal is to address the needs of businesses that depend on small commercial vehicles with a practical and efficient solution,” said John Bautista, founder and CEO of Tropos Motors. “With an ability to accommodate both large and purpose-built payloads, our vehicles are created with versatility in mind to fulfill the requirements of any corporate, first-responder, agricultural or last-mile application.”
Whether it is delivering just-in-time information to the fleet operator for emergency response needs or keeping the run of small business uninterrupted, Tropos compact utility trucks outfitted with Panasonic domain technology fits in the tightest metro spaces to complete the job.
“The goal is to address the needs of businesses that depend on small commercial vehicles with a practical and efficient solution,” said John Bautista, founder and CEO of Tropos Motors. “With an ability to accommodate both large and purpose-built payloads, our vehicles are created with versatility in mind to fulfill the requirements of any corporate, first-responder, agricultural or last-mile application.”
Connected Right-Sized Emergency Firetruck production concept is outfitted with a Panasonic TOUGHBOOK FZ-G1 Tablet to track or receive emergency information. OneConnect analytics provides battery/maintenance health as well as tampering and theft analytics. The Tropos FRV fire truck is roughly one-tenth of the cost of a full-size fire truck. The trucks have a footprint that fit on the width of a typical cart path. Due to its smaller size, the truck is able to access emergency situations with tighter spaces and can even fit underneath most parking structure height restrictions.
Connected Last Mile Refrigeration Cargo concept is a Hussmann cold chain cargo truck outfitted with small compartment RADBD Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP) insulated coolers. This technology is designed to stay 13 times colder than regular polyurethane coolers in the market and is thinner to allow for more product in the cooler. No additional refrigeration is required. VIP is designed for metro, small store deliveries. With compartmentalized cooling there is no additional energy draw on the electrical / battery system of the truck.
“Our VIP insulation technology helps save in multiple ways — overall cost and clean energy as there is less need for cooling from compression devices,” said PIDSA president, Jeff Howell. “A win-win on two fronts and a game changer in smaller cool chain deliveries.”
Panasonic’s OneConnect global platform is designed to ensure vehicles are maintained and up-to-date by providing predictive maintenance reminders to the driver, while providing analytics via the platform to the OEM and end consumer. OneConnect analytics can be customized to focus on electric vehicle data to create algorithms that improve battery efficiency to optimize short and long-term state of health of the vehicle. OneConnect analytics and data can be stored or accessed through SkipGen or SPYDR and transferred between the OEM, the vehicle and the end consumer.
