Pride Group is continuing to expand its fleet of electric trucks with the new order for 250 Freightliner vehicles

Pride Group Enterprises, a Mississauga-based logistics company, is expanding its fleet of heavy-duty electric trucks by 200 Freightliner Class 8 eCascadia and 50 Freightliner Class 6-7 eM2 box trucks in a recent order.

Pride has committed to having a 100 per cent electrified local delivery fleet within the next one to two years and already has 6,720 electric trucks on order. Previously Pride made aggressive purchase orders of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including 150 Tesla Semis and 6,320 last-mile delivery vehicles from Ohio-based Workhorse Group.

“The orders might seem big, but if you look at how many retailers are doing their own last-mile delivery, as well as all the logistics companies across Canada and the United States, there’s a lot of demand, as well as vehicle turnover,” said Sam Johal, president of Pride EV in an interview with Electric Autonomy Canada in 2021.

“We want to encourage the change to electric and with our most recent investments, we think we can be two to five years ahead of our competition; that’s our motivation. This is where the industry is headed, and we want to have that competitive advantage. We also strongly believe we need to make the industry better and electric vehicles are one way to do that.”

Impressive range and ease of use

The Class 8 eCascadia is a brand new truck model, unveiled by Freightliner earlier this year. Its range is 370 km, with a maximum battery capacity of almost 440 kWh. Meanwhile, the smaller Class 6/7 eM2 has a similar range to the Cascadia and a 325 kWh battery pack.

The eM2 will start full production in 2023, while the eCascadia will start later this year.

Pride decided to purchase the eCascadia and eM2 trucks after conducting weeks of daily real-time tests and gaining firsthand experience working with an eCascadia test vehicle in their fleet.

Pride’s Johal, said in a press release that he was particularly impressed with the eCascadia’s range and ease of use, making it ideal for last-mile drives.

Pride Group will be renting out the Freightliner vehicles for both short- and long-term terms through its subsidiary, TPine Truck Rental, which operates in Canada and the U.S. Customers will have the option of renting just the truck or the truck and an EV-trained driver. The team at TPine Truck Rental also adds that they will be helping customers navigate charging infrastructure solutions.

“I am very confident to bring these trucks into our lineup. With the improved range up to 230 miles [370 km] prior to recharge, these trucks will be a great asset,” said Johal in press materials.

“These units easily manage 10-14-hour trips — a regular driving day. This not only supports our drivers through quiet and comfortable vehicle operations but also brings us closer to our zero-emission transportation goal.”

Deliveries of Freightliner’s electric trucks to Pride are expected to start in mid-2023.