Terraline, a California-based company formerly known as Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies (Solo AVT), has announced the Tangra LH1, a human-operated battery-electric Class 8 truck that the company says will have over 500 miles of range. The company had been working on autonomous technologies, but the newly-named company says the LH1 is designed with human drivers in mind. Terraline plans to deploy test vehicles with customers this year.

Over the past year, Terraline says it has seen first-hand the appetite for its all-electric Class 8 truck and, with the launch of the Tangra LH1, seeks to decouple the adoption of its trucks from the parallel, but independent, path to autonomous trucking being pursued by other companies. The company says rebranding to Terraline is representative of this more immediately applicable solution to the industry’s most pressing issue, decarbonization.

“At Terraline, we have the opportunity to scale fast, accelerating the adoption of electrification across freight fleets today. Our success has to be of our own making and can’t be predicated on the progress of autonomous technologies and regulations. That’s why we’ve chosen to move fast on the Tangra LH1 and remove any inhibiting factors to the near-term deployment of our all-electric trucks,” said Graham Doorley, CEO and founder, Terraline. “We are staying true to our founding vision of building a truck that is all-electric and future-proof. The SD1 will remain compatible with any autonomous driving solution, but that can’t be a gate to the widespread adoption – and measurable impact – of our trucks today. Our new name fits this vision and we look forward to delivering a more immediate benefit to our partners and the industry at large.”