Mauka Energy has been awarded a US Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation and Research grant to develop the FEVER tool and underlying technologies.

Given the remote nature of many jobs in rural communities, heavy duty EV buyers, like loggers, need accurate range estimations to ensure a vehicle can service their forest land. The forestry electric vehicle energy routing (FEVER) tool calculates the optimal route and maps energy cost across a landscape, allowing users to determine the maximum range of their service fleet.

Mauka Energy aims to embed a novel forestry electric vehicle energy routing FEVER tool into heavy-duty trucks capable of regenerative braking; specifically, a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) configured for timber hauling. Simulations on forest landscapes indicate that in road systems where empty logging trucks gain elevation and full trucks lose elevation while delivering their heavy timber loads to mills, regenerative braking can reduce energy transportation cost and increase range. The embedded tool will allow operators of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and HEVs to select the most energy efficient route to their destination.

This project is the next step in the FEVER tool development. The objective is to validate the current regenerative braking force estimation model in a field setting. The work will occur in the McDonald Dunn Research Forest because it was previously digitized for the simulation study, provides several hundred miles of road networks, elevation variance and multiple routes.

We are also partnered with Titan Freight Systems, a Portland based trucking company who are providing us with heavy duty EV trucks, specifically the Freightliner Ecascadia.