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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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If Mike Simon had his way, trucks in high-traffic areas might share a feature with San Diego Trolley cars. They would have pantographs.

Pan-to … what?

A pantograph is the arm-shaped structure on the roof of those bright red trolleys — the thing that looks like a bent paper clip. It pulls electrical current from an overhead wire, letting the trolley run off grid power. Some big cities such as San Francisco run their transit buses from overhead lines, too.

In Simon’s mind, the familiar big-rig tractor would have an overhead arm to collect electricity, and propel itself with an electric motor. Such trucks could be at home in greater Los Angeles, ferrying the huge number of shipping containers from the port, up Interstate 710 and into Southern California’s rail and distribution facilities.

First-of-Its-Kind Big Rig

The highway scene exists only in Simon’s mind. But the trucks are for real. The CEO has two of them at his business, TransPower in Poway.

The $1.5 million, first-of-its-kind big rig tractor he shows off at his shop has three ways of getting its power. Big batteries can run its electric motor for short distances. A compressed natural gas engine mounted behind the cab can generate more electricity once the batteries run low.

Behind that is a pantograph assembly put together by Siemens of Germany, which could get electricity off the grid. For now at least, the three-mode truck with the overhead pantograph is an experiment.


Public Entities

TransPower’s bread and butter is converting large working vehicles — including school buses, big rig tractors and container yard tractors — from fossil fuel to electric propulsion.

Clients include public entities such as ports and school districts. TransPower meets its payroll with federal, state and local government funds, spent to clean up the air in highly polluted areas.

A few months ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti showed off a zero-emission truck from the Trans- Power shop at the Port of Los Angeles, in front of that city’s media.TransPower’s commercial customers include Ikea, which uses one of its electric tractors at its warehouse near Bakersfield.

TransPower had slightly less than $7 million in revenue in 2015. Simon said he expects revenue in the range of $10 million to $11 million this year, and $15 million to $16 million in 2017.

In the end, Simon said, the business breaks even. The business puts profits back into research and development. For now, the company relies on trade secrets, “tribal knowledge” among its workers and a six-year head start on its projects to keep competition at bay.

40 Employees

Early last week, the TransPower shop had a yellow school bus from Napa up on a rack. There was the electrical buzzing sound of a welder and Green Day on the shop radio. Every now and then a package delivery person arrived, asking Simon for his signature.

The shop has 40 full- and part-time employees.

Over here was one of TransPower’s more mainstream products: a large International-brand truck, painted purple. TransPower workers had mounted electrical components (called an inverter-charger unit) in the spot where the International truck factory had originally put a diesel engine. Big batteries sit in the space between the front and rear tires. Simon pointed to the drive shaft, where his crew had installed a pair of 200 horsepower electric motors. Those will let the truck go highway speeds while pulling a heavy load.

Part of TransPower’s product is software. Simon spoke of writing programs to produce the lowest possible emissions for a situation.

Simon, 57, is an aerospace engineer who spent early parts of his career at General Dynamics and later had a stint at General Atomics. For 10 years, he ran electric vehicle builder ISE in Poway. Ownership transferred and ISE eventually went out of business. Simon bought the remaining assets to found TransPower in 2010.

Manufacturing Costs in California

The CEO said he is committed to Southern California, but he would like to go out of state to manufacture some of the basic components, such as steel battery boxes, to cut costs.

For that expansion, Simon is looking at upstate New York. The state offers incentives to bring in clean-tech industries to replace the 20th century industries it lost.

Having a presence on the East Coast could open the door for sales in East Coast markets and perhaps in Canada, Simon said.

“If you really want to play in a given region, you have to be in that region,” he said.

With his recent financial growth, TransPower is planning a short move to the north. It is leaving 20,000 square feet of leased space in the Poway Business Park in favor of a building that Simon bought in Escondido. The new facility has 28,000 square feet, and there is an option to lease about the same amount of space close by.

Low-volume vehicle production is about as far as the company wants to go, Simon said.

When and if orders increase, he sees his company offering kits to let original equipment manufacturers build electric-drive heavy vehicles in their factories.

TRANSPOWER

Anthony Thurber works on a truck at TransPower in Poway.

CEO: Mike Simon

Revenue: About $7 million in 2015

No. of local employees: 40 full-time and part-time

Investors: Simon is the main investor

Headquarters: Poway

Year founded: 2010

Company description: After-market producer of electric-powered vehicles and related items

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