Loveland, Colo.-based Lightning Hybrids announced it changed its name to Lightning Systems, effective immediately. Lightning Systems also announced that in the next two years it will introduce a new lineup of fleet efficiency products to support commercial and government fleets.
To keep up with demand, support manufacturing of new products, and to service its customers, Lightning Systems also will be moving its corporate headquarters to the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation & Technology in Loveland at Southwest 14th Street and Taft Avenue. The new space has 45,000 sq.-ft., nearly doubling the size of the company's existing headquarters.
Lightning Systems announced that its current portfolio of product offerings will include:
- LightningAnalytics: A new cloud-based, analytics system that offers precise fuel efficiency and emissions data and analysis for unrivaled understanding and optimization of fleet vehicle efficiency, drive cycles and routes, driver behavior, and vehicle maintenance. The system is available now with the Lightning Hybrids system, and will be available standalone in Fall 2017.
- LightningHybrids: A medium and heavy duty commercial vehicle energy recovery system that offers 50 percent NOx reductions and up to 25 percent fuel savings for urban drive cycles. Applications include delivery trucks, shuttle and paratransit buses, refuse trucks, and rear-engine transit buses. The system is available now, worldwide on more than 25 platforms.
- A variety of new Lightning Systems' fuel-efficiency and emissions improvement innovations will be introduced over the next two years. All products will leverage the LightningAnalytics system to validate efficiency results for fleets and will be available as either a retrofit for existing vehicles or for new vehicles from Lightning's network of distributors and upfitters.
"The new name, Lightning Systems, and our rollout of new products reflects our company's vision: To be a global leader in efficiency and emissions improvement solutions for fleets of medium and heavy duty commercial vehicles," said Tim Reeser, CEO of Lightning Systems, who made the announcement on Wednesday at the ACT Expo, North America's largest clean vehicle event. "We are rolling out a full portfolio of products to help fleet operations be as efficient as possible, validate those results with precise analytical information, and help realize a fast return on investment."
LightningAnalytics is a new cloud-based analytics solution that provides fleets with information focused on optimizing fuel efficiency, drive cycles and routes, driver behavior, and vehicle health.
"LightningAnalytics tracks a fleet's vehicles every second, recording up to 70 variables during that second," Reeser said. "It records everything from acceleration rates, braking events, and ABS and traction-control events, to miles per gallon, idle time, and vehicle health. But the real key is the way the data is processed and then provided to fleet operators. Our team of fleet data scientists uses advanced analytics and formulas to reduce the data to useful information and present automated, as well as in-person, reports to fleet operators that give specific and actionable ways to optimize fleet operations for peak efficiency, often identifying problems and providing a solution preemptively."
LightningAnalytics is already available to LightningHybrids customers, and will be available as a standalone product for commercial and government fleets that operate diesel, gasoline, hybrid, CNG, and full-electric powertrain systems in fall 2017. The subscription-based service is currently free to fleets operating the LightningHybrids energy recovery system and has been used by more than 30 fleets on 200 vehicles around the world for the last 12 months.
According to the company, benefits include:
- Reduce fuel usage: Understand which vehicles/drivers/routes to focus training and optimization efforts on.
- Track Routes via GPS: Optimize vehicles' routes for better fuel economy and safety.
- Monitor Vehicle Health: Get real-time alerts for vehicles running suboptimally.
- Connect Securely: All connections are password protected and encrypted.
- Track Driver Behavior: Spot aggressive driving and reduce idling.
- Deploy Fleet-wide: Compatible with most vehicles.
