01 — Scope
Quote
We come to your depot. We look at your trucks, your TRU model, your routes, and your duty cycle. We send you a quote with a clear month-one savings estimate.
For South African rigid refrigerated trucks running Carrier Transicold
Take diesel runtime off your rigid refrigerated trucks.
The Elmech eTRU powers your Carrier Transicold unit through its electric standby motor, using an onboard battery, solar, and inverter stack. Built first for rigid refrigerated trucks, with trailer applications assessed per duty cycle and available roof and depot infrastructure.
Electrical engineering, now on the road. Built by Elmech (Pty) Ltd in George — designing and building electrical power and control systems across South Africa since 2019.
- Carrier 750 Series first unit telemetry
- ~140 h battery runtime last month
- ~500 L diesel displaced last month
- Rigid-first trailer fitment assessed separately
Rigid truck fitment
Is your rigid refrigerated truck a fit?
Elmech starts with Carrier Transicold rigid refrigerated trucks fitted with an electric standby motor. Trailer applications are assessed separately against duty cycle, roof area, axle loading, and depot charging access.
- Carrier unit
- Confirm model and electric standby motor.
- Truck class
- 4-ton, 8-ton, 14-ton, and heavier rigid bodies reviewed per build.
- Depot access
- Confirm overnight parking, grid supply, and charging window.
- Daily duty cycle
- Map route length, door openings, idle time, and cargo temperature.
Estimate your fleet's savings
See what an Elmech eTRU could save on your fleet.
Annual diesel displaced · fleet
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Annual rand savings · fleet
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Indicative only. Your monthly portal report shows the figures measured on your own fleet.
The cost of diesel refrigeration
Every refrigerated trip burns fuel twice.
Every refrigerated truck on the road today has two engines. The one that moves the truck — and a second, smaller diesel engine that runs the refrigeration unit. That second engine runs every hour the cargo needs to stay cold — on the road and parked at the depot overnight — and the amount of diesel it burns depends on the Carrier unit installed and the cargo profile.
It is also the engine you maintain twice as often, the one that fails in summer, and the one your drivers cannot switch off when they pull into a residential delivery at 5 a.m.
The product
A fully electric refrigeration unit, built in George.
The Elmech eTRU powers your existing Carrier refrigeration unit through its electric standby motor. Solar panels on the truck body roof top up the batteries during the day. At the depot, the unit charges from the grid overnight. The cargo stays at temperature; diesel runtime is displaced on compatible Carrier units.
Every unit is designed, built, and commissioned by Elmech around a proven stack of battery, solar, inverter, and control components — the same electrical engineering behind our power and control work across South Africa.
The eTRU is built around Carrier Transicold units. Support for Thermo King and Zanotti is on the roadmap — talk to us if you run a mixed fleet.
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Solar panels (rooftop)
Top up the batteries while you drive.
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LiFePO₄ (lithium iron phosphate) battery bank
Stores enough energy to run a full shift.
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Inverter + charge controller
Manages power flow between sources.
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Edge controller
Talks to your existing TRU unit.
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eTRU portal
Shows you exactly how much diesel you stopped burning.
From order to running cold
On your fleet in about three weeks.
Four discrete steps from the first depot visit to the first trip on battery power.
02 — Build
Workshop
Once you accept, we build the eTRU at our workshop in George. Lead time is about three weeks, subject to truck availability.
03 — Install
Fitting
We fit the unit to your truck — solar panels, battery bank, inverter, and the edge controller that talks to your existing TRU. No replacement of the refrigeration unit itself.
04 — Run
First trip
Your driver pulls away. From the first trip, you can see the diesel you no longer burn, every month, on the eTRU portal.
What the eTRU delivers
Measured. Reported. Audit-ready.
~15–40 L / day*
Example diesel displaced per unit, per day
R450–1 200 / day*
Net fuel savings per unit, reported monthly
−18 °C
Continuous HACCP-grade cargo logging
5 years
Product warranty on the eTRU
Every Elmech eTRU ships with a fleet portal that calculates diesel displacement and net savings from the unit's own telemetry, against an OEM-verified diesel-consumption model. Each unit's monthly report is audit-ready.
See how we verify the savings →*Example only. Actual diesel displaced and rand savings will differ based on daily run-hours and the size of the Carrier unit. Your monthly portal report shows the figures measured on your own fleet.
Installed unit
eTRU.x — first unit, in service since April 2026.
Pilot fleet programme
Early-fleet partner pricing is available for South African Carrier reefer operators ready to validate measured diesel displacement on their own duty cycle.
Engineering support
Every deployment starts with a depot and Carrier-unit fitment review, then moves through workshop build, on-truck fitting, and first-trip telemetry verification.
About Elmech
Electrical engineering, applied to the cold chain.
Elmech (Pty) Ltd is a George-based electrical engineering company, established in 2019. We design and build electrical power and control systems — switchgear and control cabinets through to battery, inverter, and solar installations — across South Africa. The eTRU applies that same engineering — battery, solar, inverter, and control — to the problem of refrigerated transport.
We are a startup in the eTRU space, but not in electrical engineering. Every unit is built and supported by the same team behind our power and control work across South Africa.
Led by the Elmech engineering team, the product is built for South African depot conditions, Carrier reefer compatibility, and practical nationwide support.
Tell us about your fleet.
Send us your truck type, refrigeration unit, and a typical duty cycle. We will come back with a quote and a clear month-one savings estimate.
We'll reply within one business day. No marketing list, no spam. Prefer your own mail client? info@elmech-eng.com.