It may look like a truck but it doesn’t pollute like a truck.

Built by Chanje Energy Inc., the medium-duty, all-electric truck unveiled Wednesday at a hangar at Fullerton Airport can haul 6,000 pounds of cargo and travel 100 miles on a single charge with zero tailpipe emissions.

The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

Chris Nordh (cq) of Ryder, a truck leasing company, speaks during a press conference unveiling a line of electric trucks from the Los Angeles based Chanje company at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

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The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)



The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

The Los Angeles based Chanje company CEO Bryan Hansel unveils a line of electric trucks at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

eMotorWerks COO Preston Roper speaks during a press conference unveiling a line of electric trucks from the Los Angeles based Chanje company at warehouse/hangar at Fullerton Municipal Airport October 18, 2017. The delivery vehicles were designed with permanent magnet motors from scratch, not based on any other truck. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

It’s the first battery-electric truck built from the ground up aimed at the so-called “last mile” route of commercial delivery. The company is targeting the explosion of online shopping that has driven up delivery by Fed-Ex, UPS, Amazon and others.

“If we are successful deploying this asset, we will change the energy of a community, ultimately of the world, by taking tailpipes out of the urban market where it matters most,” said Bryan Hansel, CEO of Chanje.

Headquartered in Playa Vista, Chanje is only 2-1/12 years old but already has moved beyond the prototype stage. The V8070, an oversized van with an electric drive train powered by 70 kilowatts of batteries capable of 198 horsepower per kW is available for sale today.

The company’s factory in Han Jiao, China, can produce 100,000 units a year, he said. Chanje will open at least one or more assembly plants in the United States, each capable of 10,000 trucks per year, he said.

“If you need 1,000 trucks, let’s sit down and have a chat,” he said during an interview before the event. Hansel, who said he’s not ruling out Southern California sites, said by early next year new trucks will be rolling off the assembly lines.

Chanje received a boost from Ryder, a national commercial trucking company that rents trucks and vans to commercial users such as food and beverage companies, dry cleaners and the like, by placing an order. But the company would not reveal how many trucks it has purchased.

In addition, Ryder has partnered with Chanje to help sell the trucks and provide maintenance and charging stations at its facilities across the U.S.

Hansel said the total cost over five to seven years is the same as a diesel or gasoline powered truck. The electric Chanje truck also has fewer moving parts, reducing maintenance costs by 70 percent, according to the company.

“Pricing has not been announced yet,” said Stacy Morris, Chanje spokeswoman in an email.

All the medium-sized trucks are responsible for 18 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions from transportation nationwide. Besides cutting GHGs that add to climate change, Ryder says electric delivery trucks will improve air quality in urban areas by reducing smog-forming emissions.

“There is no such vehicle around like it,” began Chris Nordh, director of global field products for Ryder. “This vehicle has the durability of a van, a cargo capacity of a box truck and the emissions profile of a bicycle,” he said Wednesday.

More than 40 percent of containerized goods imported from Asia flow through the twin ports of LA and Long Beach. And the amount of cargo is expected to double by 2035, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The ports are working on electrifying the movement of containers, but most of the pollution comes from diesel trucks moving out from the ports to points east.

Heavy-duty trucks are the No. 1 source of all smog-forming emissions in Southern California.The state’s 1 million diesel trucks account for 2.3 percent of the vehicles on the road – 56 percent of the smog-forming nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles and 66 percent of the diesel soot.

Southern California is classified by the federal government as an “extreme non-attainment area” for ozone pollution, a caustic gas that causes premature lung aging, asthma and other breathing issues after longer exposures, wheezing and shortness of breath after acute exposures.The region has until 2037 to clean up ozone pollution, though an official deadline hasn’t been set, according to the AQMD.

Ozone, a major component of LA smog, is formed in the atmosphere when nitrogen oxides (NOx) from trucks, cars and other combustion sources combine with volatile organic compounds from coatings and factories and are cooked by sunlight in the lower atmosphere.

Heavy-duty trucks account for 33 percent of all NOx pollution in California. The other pollutant from diesel-powered trucks is particulates. In Southern California, the number of particulate matter-related premature deaths from all sources stands at 7,300 per year, adding up to about $65 billion in costs, according to health experts.

This year, Southern California experienced 132 days above the 8-hour ozone standard, up from last year, according to the AQMD.