History ReBoot 4.0: The Edison Motors Story

Aug 20, 2025 - 10 months ago

Two clever entrepreneurs and inventors are creating the next wave of off highway electric and creating buzz on the internet. Story & Photos by Ronald Mullins.

Supply Post The Edison Motors Story by Ronald Mullins — *Chace Barber, Edison Truck’s President has been putting thousands of test kilometres on “Topsy,” the company’s first from-the-frame-rails-up build.*

Although, along the Trans Canada Highway and a mere 28 kilometres west of Golden, the sands of time have had their way with Donald, British Columbia. Donald is an unincorporated community, nestled in the Canadian Rockies between the Selkirk Range and the Purcell Range and along the Columbia River.

Boot 1.0

In 1884, the Canadian Pacific Railway had been granted and purchased almost 580 acres of land with the townsite being surveyed in 1886. Shortly after, a lively canvas town known originally as Columbia Crossing soon emerged.

*View of Donald railyard and adjacent commercial centre, circa 1897. Photo by James Skitt Matthews. Source: Wikimedia Commons.*

By 1894, along with a train station, telegraph office and a twelve stall roundhouse, the town included several stores, three churches, a library, a doctor, two ministers, a constable, sheriff, lawyer, a jailer, maybe even a brothel and a population of about 500. It was a very important divisional point between the Western and Pacific division of the CP Railway. However in the late 1890’s CP moved its maintenance division west to Revelstoke and the train station east to Golden. The railway had left Donald.

ReBoot 2.0

Although roads had been constructed between Lake Louise and Golden, road traffic further west ended at the Columbia River. Construction on the Big Bend Highway began in 1929 and continued to 1940. During which Donald was turned into a road construction centre. Prior to the opening of the Big Bend Highway, travel between Calgary and Vancouver required going south into the United States. This decade of road construction brought renewed life to Donald.

ReBoot 3.0

With the beginning of World War II in 1939, two portable saw mills and a planer mill were moved to Donald and put into action in support of the war effort. Later these mills were incorporated as Selkirk Spruce Mills. Life at Donald had been renewed yet again. Regrettably, fire destroyed the Selkirk mills in 1956. The sawmill was rebuild in 1960 and in 1971 Evans Forest Products acquired the assets of Selkirk Spruce Mills. Evans closed all operations at Donald in 1996. Again Donald had fallen on hard times and was transitioning into a ghost town.

ReBoot 4.0

In 2025, Edison Motors purchased just over 300 acres in the area, including the land that had been the original townsite and the area that housed the lumber operations. Their plan, to jump into the next decade by establishing a manufacturing operation for innovative hybrid electric and fully electric trucks. Once again, new life had been breathed into Donald.

What/Who Is Edison Motors?

In 2017, Tesla stated that they were going to be building an Over The Road (OTR) transport truck tractor. After spending 15 years in the Merritt, B.C. based log trucking business, Chace Barber and his friend Eric Little thought that an electric truck might work in their business. So they ordered one. They were fourth on the Tesla semi-truck order list…their order number CA 004. But after five years of waiting, and still no truck, they cancelled their Tesla order and decided to build their own.

They were confident that a diesel-electric truck would work. They had seen it working in railway engines and at mill sites with the LeTourneau log stackers. So they announced what they were planning to do on YouTube and within four days were able to raise $400,000 in seed capital. This was now a serious undertaking, but they had no place to do the work. So Chace talked his parents into letting him and Eric use their backyard, put up a tent, sourced some engineers, purchased a retired 1962 Kenworth, and Edison Motors was underway. Next, they purchased the very popular 10.5-litre 3306 CAT motor, attached it to a generator, an over-the-counter fast charger, a pillaged battery bank, and drive unit from a wrecked Tesla, hooked it all together, and ‘voila’ everything worked. Everything, including the air system, battery charging while driving, lights, air conditioner, the horn…everything. This proof-of-concept hybrid electric truck worked.

Next came Topsy, a from the frame rails up heavy-spec’d diesel electric truck…a truck built for truckers by truckers. Original engineering, design, build and initial testing took about a year. Topsy is a tandem drive, diesel electric truck with 970 HP and 72,000 ft. lbs. of torque, high visibility cab and all the accessories and creature comforts any truck driver or owner operator would want. It has been driven on all kinds of road and at highway speeds, worked hard, pulled heavy loads, shown to thousands of truck drivers and continues to be an innovation and test vehicle for the company.

Currently Edison Motors have two trucks in production. A very innovative designed diesel electric hybrid and a full diesel tandem and orders for several more. It is truly a Canadian company building trucks in British Columbia.

Innovation Challenges

There has been massive interest in what Edison Motors is designing and building but growth is often not without its challenges. First, their facilities in Merritt, B.C., were just too crowded. But to move on required two things, more investment monies and a larger production facility. The investment monies came easily, they were able to raise 1.5 million dollars in a very short period. Now a search for a new building or land to build a new production facility on was launched. Since governments at all levels were touting build Canadian in Canada Chace and Eric didn’t think there would be a problem. Regrettably industrial land in their hometown of Merritt faced municipal zoning challenges and was just too costly, due mainly to overseas ownership and their unwillingness to sell at market value.

So the search area was expanded. Shortly, they found the former Hayes HDX truck manufacturing plant in Terrace, B.C. It had been abandoned for a number of years but was still in worthwhile condition. However, the city had it zoned as commercial and insisted that since they would be building trucks zoning would have to change to industrial and they were reluctant to re-zone the property. Bureaucracy was getting in the way of innovation and growth.

The next find was perfect. Over 300 acres of land, the whole former townsite and industrial area of Donald. No zoning restrictions, no building permits, buildings they could use with a little TLC right away and everything well within their budget. It was exactly what the Edison team had hoped to find.

So the move from Merritt to Donald began. The old Evans Mill truck shop was cleaned up and given a coat of paint and offices built for the engineers…it wasn’t perfect but it allowed the design and manufacturing of the next two trucks to continue.

Oh Canada!

The excitement and interest from the logging, mining, construction, road maintenance and oil field industries in what the Edison Motors team are designing and building is very high. However, the latest challenge faced by the company is that although the Canadian government has mandated that all new cars and trucks sold by 2035 must be electric or electric hybrids, the Environment Protection Branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada will not certify the diesel electric trucks that Edison is building. Meaning they can build them but cannot sell them.

The Environment Protection Branch insists that the motors installed to run the generators at very low rpm’s must meet the same Tier 4 Final emissions standards set for standard diesel engine/transmission highway trucks. There is no comparison. The hybrid diesel engines run at very low rpm and only when battery charging is needed while the OTR diesels run at much higher rpm and for hours on end. The variance between the government EV mandate and the Environment Protection Branch has the Edison team confused.

Moving Forward

Chace and Eric and the entire 25 person Edison Motors’ team are moving forward, undeterred by the challenges they have faced and are facing. New parts and equipment are arriving on site almost daily. They are teaming up with Hard Work Industries to clear the land and install the infrastructure for the new 30,000 square foot production and office building planned for opening later this year. Along with that work is progressing on the ‘must have’ vehicle test track.

Additionally, engineering design and modifications are well underway for both a fully electric and hybrid electric pickup truck conversion kit.

Importantly, some staff might say most importantly, Edison has been working with an Alberta manufactured home builder on building a series of small homes or cabins and is currently moving them on site as staff housing. It is exciting times for Chace Barber and Eric Little, the engineers and mechanics as Edison Motors works daily to design and build the very best hybrid-heavy spec’d vocational trucks right here in Canada and ready for an international market. Trucks built by truckers for truckers.

It is an exciting Edison Motors Re-Boot for Donald, B.C. one of British Columbia’s original and key towns.

Follow Edison Motors on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

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