EtelligentForce, Magna’s battery-electric, four-wheel-drive powertrain system, is designed specifically for pickups and light commercial vehicles and is capable of towing up to 14,500 pounds, according to the company. The system will use Magna’s “eBeam technology,” which would replace traditional axles, “accommodating existing suspension and brake systems and avoiding the need for expensive redesign of existing truck platforms,” the supplier said in a news release.
“EtelligentForce comes at a pivotal time – particularly in the North American auto industry, where pickup trucks are at their height of popularity and one of the last segments to become fully electric,” Magna Powertrain President Tom Rucker said in a statement.
Magna’s announcement comes on the day it was originally scheduled to deliver a press conference at CES. The company withdrew from the Las Vegas show late last month amid rising COVID-19 cases due to the omicron coronavirus variant.
