Trucking startup Harbinger is still a relatively new company, but the flexibility of its electric vehicle platform has helped it land another customer in a different line of business. This time, the Harbinger chassis will be used in emergency vehicles for the 70-year-old Frazer company.
The two companies announced Wednesday that Frazer will build ambulances on the hybrid version of Harbinger’s platform, as well as larger mobile healthcare vehicles. Frazer will also become a customer of Harbinger’s new energy storage business, which the startup debuted earlier this year in partnership with Airstream.
The deal shows that companies like Harbinger are finding success with electric and hybrid vehicles despite headwinds in the passenger vehicle space in the United States. Grounded, another Detroit-based startup, revealed this week that it has partnered with Colgate to develop a small fleet mobile dental care vehicles.
The key to Harbinger’s success is its flexible platform, co-founder and CEO John Harris said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. The truck’s simple chassis can be shortened or lengthened depending on the customer’s needs, and the Harbinger can be dropped on a stretchable internal combustion engine if desired. Harbinger is only a few years old, but this one platform already powers RVs (built with THOR Industries), FedEx delivery trucks, a smaller box truck design, and now ambulances. This has helped the company raise more than $300 million to date.
“If you look at the step van and the RV use case, we have three wheelbases, four different GVWRs [gross vehicle weight ratings]and four different engine options, with four, five, [or] six battery packs, plus the hybrid in all those things. We have 99.5% in common,” Harris said. “That’s the game changer.”
Frazer CEO Laura Griffin told TechCrunch that switching to Harbinger’s hybrid drivetrain — which is primarily electric but leverages the natural gas engine to charge the battery — was a no-brainer because it helps lower its customers’ total cost of ownership and increases their uptime.
“We’re constantly looking for what innovations can improve the experience for our end users, which will typically be municipalities, 911 operators, hospitals,” he said. “They put it where it is compared to other mid-range chassis, so it checks all the boxes for us.”
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Griffin said Frazer will buy the battery it’s based on auxiliary power units from Harbinger and use them in both the newer hybrid emergency vehicles and older combustion versions. These will replace standard generators and can help first responders (or users of mobile healthcare vehicles) power medical devices in the field without drawing power from the vehicle’s battery or internal combustion engine.
“In the back of an emergency vehicle, for example, an ambulance, you can imagine there’s a lot of equipment, and all the latest, greatest equipment that’s being added tends to rely on electricity,” Griffin said. “So we’re looking for abundant clean energy sources that aren’t necessarily tied to the chassis.”
Harris sees this becoming a great business no matter how many hybrids Frazer buys, as the powertrains are useful regardless of the drivetrain.
“It’s going to be a faster growth curve because there are thousands of ambulances,” he said. And he’s looking at other industries, too — especially in Harbinger’s home state of California, where there are increased restrictions on the use of gas generators.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest from people saying, like, I don’t really want a generator six feet away from an operator for 12 hours a day, I’d be happy to save money on batteries. I’d be happy to have less emissions,” he said.
