Magna offers electric pickups at a lower cost

BRIMLEY, Mich. — Magna International Inc. has developed a battery-electric, four-wheel-drive powertrain system that it says can offer automakers the chance to electrify their pickups without having to completely upend their architectures.

The technology will also work with light commercial trucks.

The EtelligentForce, as it's called, uses Magna's eBeam electric axle drive system, which can replace traditional beam axles on a truck without requiring an overhaul of its suspension or brake systems.

The technology will be ready for mass production by 2025, Magna CEO Swamy Kotagiri told reporters here at a winter proving ground last week, when it showed a formerly gasoline-powered 2020 GMC Sierra 2500HD outfitted with the electric powertrain system.

He said Magna is now making the pitch to automaker customers that it will be able to provide them with the electric powertrain system as the EV market beckons, but without having to undergo costly platform redesigns and spending time and resources to develop their own.

Kotagiri said the system has already drawn "a lot of interest" from automakers, but he declined to name them.

Magna, North America's largest auto parts supplier, "is not just saying, tell us what you want and we'll give it to you," Kotagiri said. Instead, Magna's proposal is: " 'Here's the truck you had. We can make it electrified and it does exactly the same without changing your manufacturing footprint.' Bringing that value differentiates you from everyone else."

It's a pitch Magna hopes resonates with its customers, especially those who feel pressure to catch up with the industry's accelerating pace of electrification. But major truckmakers, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, as well as new aspirants such as Tesla and Rivian, are already in the midst of rolling out their own electric truck models built on new platforms — raising the question: What companies would want to use Magna's system?

Plenty of other global automakers have not yet attempted electric light trucks.

Kotagiri said the strength of Magna's electric truck powertrain system is its flexibility. Automakers who have developed electric platforms for large trucks can buy their EV powertrain from Magna just as easily as those who have not, he said.

"OEMs can say, 'I've changed the entire architecture to a true EV. Now, fit this in for me,' " he said.

Or a potential customer might be interested in only the powertrain domain, he added.

"It's still a big piece of the overall electric architecture," the CEO said. An automaker might say: "I don't want to touch ADAS and other stuff. But I want to make the change. Can you bring it in?"

Magna allowed journalists to drive the Sierra outfitted with the EtelligentForce powertrain on a test course packed with snow, ice and other hazardous conditions. The supplier wanted to showcase the powertrain's performance in wintry weather and to show that the system does not compromise the truck's capabilities, company officials said.

"It does not change the positioning of the product," Kotagiri said of existing models.

Magna ranks No. 4 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $32.6 billion in 2020.