Etelligence Quotient: Driving the Future Heavy-Duty Electric Pickup Trucks

Electric pickup trucks are coming. The Rivian R1T and GMC Hummer EV are the first we’ve driven and tested, but many more are in the pipeline. To date, however, despite their lofty curb and gross-vehicle weights, most of the electric pickup trucks on our radar are light-duty in terms of payload, and most of the entries coming from mainstream players utilize body-mounted motors and fully independent suspensions. Magna reckons that if e-pickups are going to assume the heavy-lifting (and tugging) duties of today’s 2500 and 3500 duallies, they’re going to need the live axles and leaf springs today’s trucks are using.

Enter the eBeam

Magna’s eBeam electrified live axle is designed to be a direct replacement for today’s live-axle rear suspensions, featuring the exact same spring and shock mounts used by internal combustion trucks. This one incorporates the steel axle ends used on a GMC Sierra Denali. The motor is coaxial, meaning the left-side axle shaft runs directly through the rotor, with the reduction gearing protruding forward from the center in such a way as to occupy the same physical envelope as would the nose of a typical differential. Viewing B-roll of the vibration this eBeam motor must withstand caused us to fret about bearing designs and such, but we’re assured the frequency of live-axle vibration is low enough not to pose serious issues with the motor.

Steered or Unsteered eBeams

The example shown here is for an un-steered rear axle, but Magna envisions offering a steerable live front eBeam axle, and perhaps even a third variant optimized to permit smaller-angle rear steering to enhance maneuverability and ease trailer backing.

Scalable Up or Down

The eBeam’s permanent-magnet-type motor can be scaled up to 335 hp and a max of 582 lb-ft, which works out to 7,376 lb-ft of axle torque spinning through 12.67:1 gearing. Speaking of which, it’s a two-stage reduction, with a high-speed gear set (gears with finer teeth shown on the left) and a secondary lower-speed reduction (fatter teeth for higher torque on the right). By simply swapping in different low-speed gears, this axle design can deliver reduction gearing in a range from 12:1 to 17:1 to suit various truck duty cycles, tire sizes, etc. The motor output can also be scaled. The differential internals are essentially identical to those in a Dana 60 axle.

But What About Unsprung Weight!?

At its current state of development, utilizing remote, body-mounted power electronics, we’re told the eBeam weighs just 40 pounds more than the unpowered GMC Sierra 2500HD live axle it replaces on the EtelligentForce electric pickup truck. That’s an increase of just 4 percent. Magna envisions eventually incorporating the inverter on the eBeam assembly to boost efficiency and reduce total system weight and says this will add 10 pounds or less to the axle itself.

Front eDS Mid+ Motor and Independent Suspension

For medium-duty electric pickup trucks that don’t require a live-axle front suspension, Magna offers its eDS Mid+ motor/reduction-drive/inverter assembly three-in-one solution. Like the eBeam, the eDS is designed to bolt right into an existing truck, retaining the combustion truck’s axle-shaft mounting points. Designed to serve as a secondary axle (assisting acceleration and aiding in low-torque situations), this permanent-magnet type motor features a decoupler to idle the motor and eliminate the electric drag produced by a freewheeling permanent-magnet motor. It can reconnect in as little as two-tenths of a second. (An AC-induction-type motor is also available in the eDS range, obviating the need for the decoupler.) In the Mid+ guise we sampled, it produces a maximum of 228 hp and 237 lb-ft. With the 11.72:1 gearing sampled, that works out to 2,781 lb-ft of axle torque, but here again, power and gearing can be tailored to suit, and there are larger and smaller variants of this motor.

No Compromise Payload/Towing

By using carryover suspension or perhaps simply increasing the spring/damper rates slightly to offset additional weight of the batteries, there should be no need to downrate heavy-duty electric pickup trucks using Magna’s bolt-in powertrain. The tuning priority for these trucks is continuous performance climbing a sustained grade with a load. And as a bonus, we’re told that the EtelligentForce pickup is capable of descending a 7 percent grade at a steady speed without using the friction brakes, when loaded to a gross combined weight of 24,000 pounds. That’ll build confidence in mountain towing.

So How Does It Drive?

Our early eBeam was slightly derated to produce just 295 hp in a 2021 GMC Sierra 2500HD and mounted using the stock springs and dampers. Teamed with the eDS Mid+ motor, the truck produced a total of 523 hp and 819 lb-ft, and it rocketed to 60 mph in a very believable 4.6 seconds, en route to a claimed 13.7-second quarter-= mile, riding the 99-mph speed limiter. We sampled it back to back with a similar GMC Sierra 2500HD on a snowfield, an ice field, and a snowy two-track ride-evaluation road. Both the Magna EtelligentForce truck and the stock GMC rode like heavy-duty trucks, and the 550 or so pounds added by the 80-kWh battery smoothed out its ride. We didn’t detect any ill effects of the heavier eBeam, and we had a blast hooning big drifts with impunity.

An Inherent Stability Advantage in Reduced Traction

The EtelligentForce truck is a technology demonstrator, not a production prototype. As such, it benefits from neither NVH optimization nor stability-control programming. And yet, with electric motors at both ends, the system can stabilize itself with power in ways that are otherwise impossible in a heavy-duty truck with a set front/rear torque distribution. By overpowering the front axle, the truck can pull itself out of slides in ways that mechanical four-wheel-drive systems simply can’t (at least not without dramatically power and momentum robbing brake intervention).

Another Revelation That Shouldn’t Have Been

Electric motors are vastly superior to combustion for a four-wheel-drive heavy-duty pickup truck. Currently most such trucks only get part-time 4WD, which makes them bind up when turning on dry pavement (a notable exception is the Chevy/GMC HD trucks, which use the new Magna Powertrain Autotrac MP3025 transfer case). With no mechanical connection and the 50/50 torque split it brings, an all-electric heavy-duty truck is free to overpower the front axle and straighten a skid. It never binds up on dry pavement, and an electric motor’s torque can more easily be micromanaged multiple times per revolution—at 10 milliseconds, it’s at least ten times quicker than the very best wheel-speed sensor can call for torque reduction or brake application in a combustion truck. This is another advantage of the software-defined vehicle over its hardware-only predecessors.

When and How Much?

We’re told to expect to see the eBeam axle in a production truck in 2025. Magna won’t say which manufacturer will lead with it, but they did admit that three new OEMs will enter production with various Magna electric powertrains (joining VW, for which Magna provides its eDS Low CE inductive motor to power the front axle of the ID4 AWD model). Pricing will be “competitive” and driven largely by battery costs.

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