Electric Transport Refrigeration Unit for Trailers Completes Trial with Meijer

The three-month long trial achieves major milestones while on the road, including electric fleet performance parameters in winter conditions.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 9, 2023 — Thermo King, a strategic brand of global climate innovator Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT), recently completed the latest field testing of its innovative evolve™ electric trailer with Meijer, a privately-owned and family-operated retailer that operates one of the largest fleets in Michigan.

Meijer piloted Thermo King’s electric trailer during Michigan’s harsh winter weather, adding to Thermo King’s understanding of how climate impacts the system. During its time with Meijer, the technology was used for single-temperature grocery transport and data was tracked using Thermo King’s TracKing® telematics. With this connected solution, operational and route analysis information was captured to assist with the development of future electric operations.

“Meijer is dedicated to leading the industry’s adoption of electrification and Thermo King is proud to partner with them on this technology,” said Sam Doerr, Trailer Portfolio Leader, Thermo King Americas. “Meijer’s leadership demonstrates that sustainable practices are possible, and their approach is being sought proactively by other companies looking to decrease their carbon footprint.”  

“Meijer is committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and we’re pleased to work with Thermo King, which is leading the industry to further technology and sustainability efforts,” said Dave Granning, Meijer Fleet Maintenance Manager. “This was a great opportunity and partnership to use real world conditions to help facilitate the advancement of technology and the goal to improve the overall supply chain emissions.”

With zero direct emissions, Thermo King’s electric trailer technology has been put to the test since late 2021. Each customer trial provides new learnings about what will be needed to ensure customer needs can be met as they look to go all-electric. These findings, which include data such as estimated CO2 emissions avoided in both trip and base operations, trip-based energy utilization, and how delivery procedures impact overall energy demands, provide the necessary insights to help to bring a commercialized, all-electric trailer to the market. To date, Thermo King’s single-temperature electric trailer has logged nearly 4,000 hours of customer trials with more to come throughout 2023, which will also include an electric multi-temperature demonstrator unit.

Thermo King continues to lead the industry with the widest range of zero and low-emission transport temperature control solutions and is committed to the advancement of technologies that reduce environmental impact and help advance its 2030 Sustainability Commitments. By 2025, Thermo King will have an all-electric solution in every transport segment of the cold chain, and this aligns with the Gigaton Challenge to reduce customer greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion metric tons.