Pierce Manufacturing's electric fire truck wins this year's Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin competition
APPLETON - Pierce Manufacturing has taken the crown of "2022 Coolest Thing Made In Wisconsin" with its electric fire truck.
The electric fire truck rose to the top against three other finalist: Plexus Corp's Quidel Savanna, a machine that accepts a patient sample and provides a diagnostic result in less than 25 minutes; Columbia Vehicle Group's Tomberlin E-Merge Beachcomber, a multi-terrain, street legal, low speed vehicle; and H&S Manufacturing's LOADMASTER 2X, a harvesting dump cart designed to carry 60,000 pounds of product.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, who sponsors the contest, announced the winner via Twitter early Wednesday afternoon. They presented the award during WMC's Business Day event, hosted in Madison at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.
The Pierce Volterra pumper is the first zero-emissions electric fire truck in service in North America. The truck minimizes fuel and produces less noise with no compromise on features, performance, functionality and safety, the company's website states.
The truck comes equipped with an electro-mechanical infinitely variable transmission, integrate onboard batteries and and internal combustion engine for continuous and uninterrupted power to the pumping or drive system.
The vehicle is configured with 700 vehicle dynamic control at 400 AMPs for 280kW of battery output, according to the company. This can be compared to a conventional drivetrain with an L9 engine.
It is specifically tailored to be able to operate fully on electric power for the city of Madison's needs and duty cycle for a full-shift. This electric fire truck helps to meet Madison's Climate Forward agenda to reduce local carbon emissions.
“Pierce has been a proud Wisconsin manufacturer for over 100 years, and our team is incredibly honored to have been included among an admired group of companies and remarkable products,” said Lisa Barwick, vice president of marketing - Fire & Emergency Segment for Oshkosh Corporation, in a news release. "Winning is an incredible distinction, and we are thankful for the support of our Oshkosh Corporation and Pierce team members, the community, our dealer network across North America, and our customers.”
This year marks the seventh Coolest Thing contest and over 120,000 votes poured in to find this year's winner.
"We want to be able to focus on this industry and talk about the cool things we make in Wisconsin but also the great careers that are available making those cool things," said Nick Novak, vice president of communications and marketing for WMC.
WMC started the contest in an effort to recognize how manufacturer's throughout the state contribute to the economy. Wisconsin is home to roughly 9,000 manufacturing facilities who contribute over $68 billion to the economy. One in six workers in the state are employed with manufacturing facilities.
Nominations were accepted from August to September, when the official nominees were announced. Participants went through three rounds of bracket voting until the finalist was chosen.
"Winning this award recognizes our commitment to developing electric vehicle solutions which help firefighters save lives and best serve their communities," Barwick said in a news release. "As one of our latest innovations, it’s incredible to see our network and community rally around a shared vision for where the Volterra electric fire truck will take the fire service in the coming years."
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Pierce Manufacturing, an Oshkosh Corp. company, has been manufacturing custom vehicles since 1913, but moved solely to firefighting equipment in the 1950s. The company has a fire truck on every continent including Antarctica. It has manufacturing plants in Wisconsin and Bradenton and Clearwater, Florida.
According to the news release, Pierce will continue to develop and evaluate the Volterra electric vehicle over the next year to gain valuable exposure and insight into the operational environments the vehicle must withstand.
Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.