A Spanish startup wants to make trucks ‘fly’ to save fuel

“When I lowered the car window and put my hand out and it was windy, it would go up.” This is the “childish” explanation (and that should not be done for safety) of the “invention, not innovation” of Abdon Estefan and Mauricio Vargas. However, its system is more complex than the summary for the little ones, “the idea was there, but nobody had considered it until now,” Estefan details. A few years ago, this Colombian engineer and fan of airplane piloting had the light bulb turned on. He called his ‘colleague’ Mauricio Vargas and took off the idea of ​​him to make the trucks ‘fly’. “It is a revolution for the logistics sector,” says Vargas.

These are not flying cars, but mimic the force that keeps planes in the air. “We talk about lift,” explains Vargas. “It is that energy that is produced when a vehicle hits an air mass and it does not apply to trucks, buses or trains,” answers Estefan. That lift in English or sustenance in Spanish makes it possible to lighten the cargo weight of the trucks and “thus save 25% on fuel,” says Abdon. “But it also reduces tire and engine wear by 10% and greenhouse gases (GHG) are reduced by 15%,” added Mauricio Vargas. “It is economics of the environment,” reveal both.

This is the central idea of ​​Eco Eolic Top System, a Spanish company with a subsidiary in Canada and whose patent “is registered by 90% of the market in production and also in marketing,” explains Estefan. “The first concession arrived in 2021 in Spain,” says Adriana Estefan, the company’s marketing manager.

Ready in 2023

Designed in 2018, now the process has taken them to Barcelona where “we are passing the homologation tests,” says Vargas. “We hope to see the first prototypes in the first half of 2023 and commercialize them in the second half of the year,” he advances.

«The first prototypes will arrive in the first half of 2023 and we expect their commercialization in the second half of the year»

Mauricio Vargas

co-founder of Eco Eolic

The irruption in the sector has “been positive”, reveal the founders. However, “there are some doubts, because we are talking about something that does not exist. This is an invention, not an innovation”, explains Vargas. “But fortunately, we have answers for all the questions.”

In fact, several Spanish companies have been interested in this device that uses kinetic energy to reduce the weight of the truck, even if the load does not vary, and make it lighter to avoid higher consumption. “It is one of the great concerns of transport companies,” says Mauricio Vargas, who before joining Eco Eolic Top System was responsible for logistics at another company.

The set of mechanical parts, for the moment, are installed on the roof of the truck, although “in the future it will be incorporated into the bodywork,” reveals Vargas. “What we do is we use the headwind to go downwind, because all the energy that is generated around the vehicle is wasted, but we harvest it to generate positive effects,” he says. “It’s like setting up a wind power generator,” adds Estefan.

To do this, the speed of the vehicle must be greater than 80 kilometers per hour to achieve a satisfactory result, although at higher wind speeds there will be more energy.

Not only sustainability, also safety

With a price between 12,000 and 15,000 euros, the system designed by the Spanish startup is designed to reduce the use of fuel. “We arrived at an ideal time due to the current context,” details Abdon Estefan. However, it is not the only application, since in the same way that it lightens the weight, “we can increase it for, for example, emergency braking,” says Vargas.

“Our system comes at an ideal time due to the current energy context”

Abdon Estefan

co-founder of Eco Eolic

Run&Save “is a system that is constantly adapting and completely independent of the driver,” says Vargas. “He will only receive one savings report per day,” he details. But the system is constantly moving to adapt to road and wind conditions “thanks to artificial intelligence,” reveal the creators of the prototype.

In addition, Run&Save also has other lines such as using energy to recharge the battery of electric vehicles, “in this way we can also increase the autonomy that is essential for operators,” says Vargas.