LiFePO₄ battery bank
Modular 16 kWh packs. Standard configurations from three packs (48 kWh) to nine packs (144 kWh), matched to your duty cycle.
Electric refrigeration unit
A fully electric refrigeration unit for South African reefer fleets.
The Elmech eTRU is a battery-electric retrofit for diesel transport refrigeration units. Built in Mossel Bay around a proven battery, solar, and inverter stack. It feeds the electric standby input on your existing Carrier unit — the refrigeration controls, compressor, and fans are unchanged.
Native Carrier integration · COP optimisation · Preemptive fault detection · Carrier diesel engine: near-zero run hours
Product at a glance
A hardware product, with the portal included.
The Elmech eTRU replaces the diesel engine driving your refrigeration unit with a battery-electric power source. It is a retrofit: the existing Carrier unit with an electric standby motor stays in place, and the eTRU connects to its electric standby supply input. The cargo stays at temperature; the diesel engine stays off.
- Vehicle class
- 4-ton rigid up to full trailer
- Standard stack
- Battery · Solar · Inverter
- Build + install
- ~3 weeks (subject to truck availability)
- Warranty
- 5 years, within electrical specifications. Road accidents and similar external events are excluded.
- Service area
- Nationwide, South Africa
- Pricing
- Once-off purchase or Cooling-as-a-Service funding
- Company
- Elmech (Pty) Ltd, Mossel Bay. Startup, founded on 20+ years of solar engineering experience.
Retrofit, not replacement
How the eTRU connects to your truck.
Every Carrier refrigeration unit fitted with an electric standby motor accepts an AC power feed at the depot — that's the standby input. The eTRU plugs into that same input, but onboard, fed by a battery bank, rooftop solar, and a depot grid charger. The refrigeration unit's electronics, compressor, fans, and the diesel engine itself are left in place. The diesel engine simply stops being used.
What's in the unit
The hardware, component by component.
Rooftop solar array
2 to 5 kW of PV, sized to fit the trailer or rigid body. Tops up the battery bank while the truck is on the road and at the depot.
Inverter / charger
Industrial-grade inverter/charger stack. Three-phase 230 V output, feeding the refrigeration unit's standby supply input.
Solar MPPT controller
MPPT controller manages the PV array and writes harvested energy to the battery bank.
Depot grid charger
Single AC input at the depot. Full charge in under four hours, regardless of pack count.
Edge controller
Reads telemetry from the battery, inverter, MPPT, and the TRU's serial bus. Streams the data to eTRU Insights for measured savings verification.
Specifications
Performance & specifications.
- Energy capacity
- 48 – 144 kWh, in 16 kWh increments
- Battery chemistry
- LiFePO₄
- Solar capacity
- 2 – 5 kW, sized to the roof area
- Grid charge time
- Under 4 hours, full charge
- Vehicle classes
- 4-ton rigid through to full trailer
- TRU compatibility
- Any Carrier refrigeration unit with an electric standby motor
- Standard stack
- Battery · Solar · Inverter
- Build location
- Mossel Bay, South Africa
- Lead time
- ~3 weeks from order (subject to truck availability)
- Service area
- Nationwide, South Africa
Compatibility
If your TRU has an electric standby motor, it's compatible.
Most modern Carrier units sold in South Africa are already fitted with an electric standby motor — the motor used to drive the refrigeration unit from an AC plug at the depot. The eTRU uses that same input. There is no change to the refrigeration unit itself, no change to its diesel motor, and no change to the driver-facing controls.
From order to running cold
On your fleet in about three weeks.
Each step is a discrete handoff. Operators see verifiable progress from quote through to the first trip running cold.
01
Quote
A 20-minute technical call to map your fleet, vehicle classes, and TRU models. We confirm fit and issue a written quote.
02
Workshop
The unit is built in Mossel Bay around the standard battery, solar, and inverter stack, sized to your duty cycle.
03
Fitting
Battery bank, inverter, MPPT, and solar array are fitted to the truck. The eTRU is wired into the existing standby input.
04
First trip
The truck runs cold on battery power. eTRU Insights starts streaming live telemetry from the first kilometre.
Verified savings
Measured, not estimated.
Every eTRU continuously measures the grid kWh consumed at charge and the energy delivered to the refrigeration unit on the road. The diesel litres displaced are calculated from those measurements — not estimated from generic assumptions. Each customer sees their own fleet's verified savings on eTRU Insights, the portal that ships with every unit.
Native reefer integration Live COP optimisation OEM-baselined diesel displacement Hosted in South Africa
Native Carrier integration COP optimisation Preemptive fault detection Carrier diesel engine: near-zero run hours
Two ways to buy
Once-off purchase or Cooling-as-a-Service.
An eTRU can be bought outright as a once-off capital purchase, or financed through our Cooling-as-a-Service programme: a fixed monthly fee per truck with no upfront capital outlay. At the end of the CaaS term, ownership of the hardware transfers to you. Terms and pricing are issued per quote and depend on fleet size and duty cycle.
Five-year warranty
Backed by Elmech, serviced nationwide.
Every eTRU carries a five-year warranty against electrical defects, within specification. Road accidents and similar external events are excluded. Service is delivered nationwide across South Africa by Elmech engineers, supported by the workshop in Mossel Bay where every unit is built.
Frequently asked
Questions we hear from fleet engineers.
Do you supply the hardware or only the portal?
Turnkey hardware. Every eTRU ships as a complete unit built and commissioned by Elmech: a LiFePO₄ battery bank (modular 16 kWh packs, 3 to 9 per unit), industrial-grade inverters and a solar MPPT, a 2 – 5 kW rooftop PV array, a variable-frequency drive that sits between the inverters and the refrigeration unit's electric standby motor, the edge controller, and the depot grid charger.
A depot AC upgrade and safety-compliance work is recommended where the existing depot supply doesn't meet the load. eTRU Insights — the savings-verification portal — ships with every unit.
Which TRU manufacturers are supported?
Any Carrier refrigeration unit fitted with an electric standby motor is compatible with the eTRU. The eTRU feeds the same AC input the standby motor already uses at the depot — onboard, from the battery bank — so no modification is made to the refrigeration unit itself, its controls, or its diesel engine.
Other manufacturers are not supported.
Talk to an Elmech engineer.
A 20-minute technical call to map your fleet, vehicles, and TRU models against what the portal can verify on day one.