With a flood of electric pickup trucks poised to hit the market in the near future, aftermarket accessory companies are starting to go green, too.
Toronto-based manufacturer Worksport has decided to make the flat surface on the back of a pickup truck a bit more practical by installing a pickup-bed cover with built-in solar panels.
Called Terravis, the system consists of a photovoltaic, folding tonneau cover that takes energy from the sun, stores it in bed-mounted batteries that can be later used to power appliances and tools at job sites, campsites, or anywhere else an outlet isn’t within arm’s reach.
The Terravis system will fit existing gas-powered trucks from roughly the 2010 model year forward, the company says, and it also plans to develop models for upcoming electric pickups from Rivian, GM, Ford, Bollinger, and others, claiming the system will be able to add range to hybrid and electric trucks, once they become available.
“Everyone is moving towards solar power and renewable energy sources, and so is the pick-up truck market,” Steven Rossi, Worksport’s CEO, said in a press release. “Our system is being designed to, among other things, provide a meaningful source of energy for the new wave of electric trucks.”
