When Thomas Healy was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017, his startup, Hyliion, was still in the early stages of developing an innovation he called the “e-axle”—that’s an electrified axle, powered by lithium-ion batteries, that could be incorporated into the drivetrain of a traditional Class 8, long-haul truck.

Healy saw the e-axle as a hybrid bolt-on solution for bringing electric power to the world of long-haul trucking. The e-axle could be retrofitted onto old trucks, or built into new ones. The benefits were clear—the e-axle would provide a helping hand, adding power and torque that allowed the diesel block to work more efficiently, improving fuel mileage and lowering emissions, while also capturing power via regenerative braking.

Healy says trucking fleets told him: “You can’t deliver a solution that weighs a lot more than a conventional truck does because that’s just going to cut into our cargo capacity.” So the Hypertruck features a small battery pack, a small generator, “with a really strong software algorithm behind it.”
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