Cooperative Living January/February 2023 - 12

COOPERATIVE FOCUS
The Industrial EVolution
by Randy Walker, Cardinal News
The future of truck transportation is already happening in Southwest Virginia
" seek and you will find. " In Latin,
Patrick Collignon,
the founder of Trova CV
" trova " means " find, " says Collignon.
" ... we left the seeking behind and we
went immediately for 'we will find.' "
What Collignon hopes to find is a
solution, at least in part, to a giant
challenge facing the trucking industry
and society in general. And he wants to
do it by taking heavy diesel trucks off the
roads and converting them to electric.
In a building not far from Trova's
design studio, two Class 8 trucks (gross
vehicle weight rating over 33,000
pounds) sit side by side. Seemingly new,
with gleaming green paint, they are in
fact a repurposed 2016 Volvo and 2009
Mack. The Mack is waiting for its
electric drivetrain. The Volvo has already
mostly completed its transformation,
as witnessed by a trace of road dirt on
the body and tires.
With a little imagination, one can
almost smell the exhaust and hear the
roar of the diesel. Except there's nothing
to smell and very little to hear. These
trucks are powered by rechargeable
Panasonic 18650 lithium-ion batteries.
Not far away in Wytheville, Va.,
Y
ou may have seen them ifyou've
been in Southwest Virginia
anytime recently. Pulling 53foot-long
trailers, and standing over
13 feet tall, they are hard to miss.
But you may not have heard them,
because they move very quietly. They are
battery-electric trucks, forerunners of
an electrified future, and they are already
running daily routes in the area. Some
are new, some have been repurposed;
Patrick Collignon of Dublin, Va., knows
about all of them.
10 ● Cooperative Living ●
At an age when most people are
thinking about retirement, Collignon
could have easily chosen to ride out the
rest of his career like a long-distance
trucker nearing the terminal. Instead,
he stepped down from a major
commercial automotive giant and
turned the ignition switch of his
start-up.
H He says his
Commercial Vehicles (Trova CV),
ccomes from th
January-February 2023
omes from the Biblical admonition,
Camrett Logistics is one of several
companies already using electric trucks
in the region. Camrett provides thirdparty
warehousing and distribution
services for clients including the Volvo
Trucks North America plant in Dublin.
Camrett has a two-way relationship
with Volvo. The company bought a 2022
VNR electric truck from Volvo that
went into service in July. It shuttles parts
from the Camrett warehouses in Dublin
and Fairlawn to the Volvo plant.
lawn to the Volvo plant.
e says his destination is the future.
The name oofhis start-up, Trova
test the electric trucks, " says Collin Peel,Peel
founder and CEO ofCamrett. " The
" This is a near-perfect scenario toto
e
fou er
nder and CEO ofCamrett. " The
current truck is running probably a
unn
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Cooperative Living January/February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living January/February 2023
