Canadian startup Edison Motors is shipping its BDE series truck with a conventional Cummins diesel and 16-speed transmission, not the series-hybrid drivetrain the company was founded to build. The production prototype, shown towing a scrapped Nikola semi in a pointed piece of marketing, is called the Big D. It is a deliberate step back from the technology that put Edison on the map.
The hybrid version is still coming. That truck will pair a Scania diesel rated at 500 kW with electric motors producing a combined 1800 kW peak, 2400 horsepower total, backed by a large battery pack. Edison is deferring that system to clear regulatory hurdles, work out drivetrain bugs, and generate revenue without betting the company on a single unproven product. The Nikola comparison is not subtle: Edison is explicitly building its survival strategy around not repeating that collapse.
The piece is worth reading in full because the business logic is as interesting as the engineering. Edison also plans to offer its hybrid drive as a retrofit kit for smaller trucks, which opens a different market entirely. The original Hackaday coverage of the diesel-electric architecture and the kit truck program are both linked and provide the technical foundation that makes this conventional-first launch make sense.
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