Building For the Future…Now!

Aug 21, 2025 - 10 months ago

Velocity Truck Centres adds electric and alternative fuel maintenance features to their brand-new facility in Kelowna, B.C. Photos & Story by Ronald Mullins.

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The commercial truck and heavy equipment industry is moving away from its age-old reliance on traditional gas or diesel fuels and is rapidly embracing several alternatives.

Trucks powered by batteries and electric motors have been around for more than a century, but the current push to cleaner transportation has led to a dramatic resurgence in EV popularity and use. Tesla has become almost a household name in North America, and they delivered their first all-electric Class 8 truck to PepsiCo in December 2022. In Canada CocaCola have introduced Volvo VNR electric trucks to its Montreal fleet. More and more EV-powered trucks are being seen in city streets daily. Although China remains the world’s largest manufacturer of electric trucks, other recognizable North American brands like Freightliner, Kenworth, and Navistar all have electric or hybrid-electric models in their lineup. Hybrid diesel-electric trucks are being manufactured in Canada by Edison Motors. RAM trucks in the US are building the Ramcharger, a gasoline-electric plug-in hybrid.

In the early 1990s, Saskatchewan Research Council began working on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as well as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) fuelled vehicles. Early in the next decade, several truck manufacturers, including Freightliner, Kenworth, Navistar, and Thomas Built Buses, began introducing CNG and LNG alternate-fuelled vehicles to the market.

Hydrogen-powered trucks have been in experimental and early commercial forms since the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until the early 21st century that companies like Daimler, Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo, General Motors, and Hyzon Motors began active development of hydrogen fuel cell trucks.

But developing and marketing these alternate fuel trucks is only part of the equation. Ongoing maintenance and repair are critical elements.

Category leader Velocity Truck Centres Canada recognized that the future is now, and when plans got underway for a brand-new truck sales and maintenance facility in Kelowna, British Columbia, the inclusion of repair facilities for CNG, hydrogen, and both electric and hybrid-electric trucks was of the utmost importance.

Sustainability

On June 20, 2025, Velocity Truck Centres opened the doors to an ultra-modern, over 40,000 ft2, thirteen-bay, state-of-the-art display, sales, and commercial truck maintenance facility at 6320 Lapointe Drive. With easy off-on access from British Columbia’s longest highway, Highway 97, and in the growing and active development area of Kelowna, this Velocity Truck Centre features the most advanced repair facilities and parking for trucks of all sizes.

The entire building is designed and constructed to embrace the latest sustainability and energy-efficient systems. Additionally, it is on the doorstep of Kelowna’s international airport, ensuring the fast and efficient delivery of necessary parts, parts that may not be in stock in Velocity’s vastly expanded parts department.

EV Charging

Included at this new and expanded facility are Detroit eFill, heavy-duty, electric truck charging stations designed to support Freightliner as well as the RIZON EV line. This EV-Charging system is also capable of charging other Class 8, mid-duty, and light-duty commercial vehicles.

Alternative Fuel Service

Only the second of its kind in southern British Columbia, Velocity Kelowna has service bays for both hydrogen and CNG-fuelled vehicles of all makes and sizes. These service bays feature specialized ventilation, gas detection, flameless apparatus, and systems tailored to provide an ultra-safe work environment during maintenance and repair of these alternative-fuel vehicles and include fully certified systems to safely degas vehicles.

Expanded Support

Velocity Kelowna’s infrastructure has been designed and is in place to accommodate and service a fleet of CNG-fuelled vehicles. This readiness provides that the marketplace is fully prepared for the broader adoption of all alternate-fuelled vehicles while providing fleet owners the maintenance and support reassurance they need when transitioning to energy-efficient fuel systems.

Velocity Truck Centres Canada, with 16 locations across Alberta and British Columbia, has been proudly serving the commercial trucking industry for over 40 years. The company was founded and is based on these three values: Speed, Value, and Trust, guiding every customer interaction, every day.

Velocity Truck Centres is a division of the Velocity Vehicle Group, a global network of more than 100 commercial vehicle dealerships and related operations across Canada, Mexico, Australia, and the United States.

Follow Velocity Truck Centres Canada on social media: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Ronald Mullins is a Kelowna, B.C. based writer / photographer and is a regular contributor to Supply Post.