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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
O C T O B E R
2 0 24 Illu s t r a t i o n s : i S t o c k / M e r i e l J a n e W ai s s m a n / R o b i n O li m b
B U S I N E S S C L I M AT E
DRIVING CHANGE
How Edison Motors is powering a push toward cleaner semi trucks
"So we spent the whole drive
talking about how we would
do it, and by the end we were
like, 'Let's do it.'"
The pair had already put
$25,000 down on a reservation
for a Tesla Semi, but after sev-
eral years of radio silence from
the Elon Musk-led automaker,
Barber asked for a refund. "I
said, 'Give me the money back.
I'll start my own,'" he remem-
bers with a laugh. "That's why
we called the company Edison.
Our tagline was 'Stealing
Tesla's Idea.'"
Barber and Little started
posting about their plans on
social media and, before long,
more than 130 profession-
als—among them experts in
electrical, engineering and
mechanics—had come forward
to help out.
"We did the whole thing in
a tent in my parents' backyard
for the first few trucks. We
got pizza and beer and our
buddies showed up and we
just started pulling wrenches,"
remembers Barber who, along
Chace Barber and Eric
Little were driving a 1969
Kenworth truck from the
Yukon to Merritt when they
started hatching a plan.
It was 2019, and the two
loggers were on their way
home from a remote commu-
nity where they had installed
a diesel generator and battery
bank that allowed a small First
Nation to drastically reduce its
diesel usage during peak times.
With no radio in the vintage
semi, they got to talking.
"We said, 'Hold on, this
truck is pretty similar to a
power grid. What if we made it
a hybrid, like we just did with
that community?" remem-
bers Barber. The idea would
work especially well in British
Columbia, they concluded, be-
cause logging trucks typically
go uphill empty and downhill
fully loaded.
"The battery could meet
the peak power demand
because it takes a ton of power
to get a truck moving off a red
light, and a ton of power to
climb a hill. But your average
power when you're coasting
isn't that bad," explains Barber.
by Jennifer Van Evra
Jennifer Van Evra is an
award-winning Vancouver
journalist, broadcaster and
UBC writing instructor.
SOURCES: ANGUS REID INSTITUTE, ELECTIONS BC, TIME
61.2%
2017
elec tion
53.9%
2020
elec tion
71.5%
1996
elec tion
Voter
turnout in the
Current number of seats in the B.C. legislature: 87
SPENDING ON THE 2024
PROVINCIAL ELECTION BY
ANY ONE POLITICAL PARTY IS
CAPPED AT
$5,049,954 .
INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES
CAN SPEND
$71,429.
There were approximately 3,000 eligible voters
in B.C.'s first provincial election in 1871. Voting was
restricted to male British subjects 21 and older
who met property and residence requirements.
Judges, magistrates and police were prohibited
from voting. By comparison, there were 3.5
million registered voters in the 2020 election.
GREEN MACHINE
Chace Barber and Eric
Little launched Edison
Motors to help the trucking
industry clean up its act
