Kittle’s Furniture Acquires Indiana’s First Kenworth K270E Battery-Electric Truck

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Indianapolis retailer Kittle’s Furniture expects the battery-electric Kenworth K270E truck that it recently added to its vehicle fleet will save $10,000 annually in fuel expenses. (Photo courtesy of Kenworth.)

Kittle’s Furniture recently purchased Indiana’s first Kenworth battery-electric truck. Founded in 1932, the family-owned furniture and mattress retailer is using its new Kenworth K270E to complete deliveries from its distribution center in Fishers to customers in the Indianapolis metro area. Kittle’s says the truck is saving money and reducing the retailer’s consumption of fossil fuels.

“We’ve been tracking the performance and project we will be saving $10,000 a year in fuel alone,” says Kittle’s Furniture Director of Operations Tyler Baker. “And our cost for recharging has been negligible. We’re not seeing much of a difference in our electric bill. We use the truck starting at 7 a.m., and it’s returned to the charging pedestal by 6:00 p.m. It’s then plugged in and ready to go in the morning.”

Kenworth K270E Details

Kenworth introduced the Class 6, medium-duty K270E in 2020 alongside the K370E, a Class 7 battery-electric truck. Both cabover vehicles are well-suited to local distribution, pickup and delivery, and last-mile logistics work. Customers can choose from two direct-drive motors rated for 355 or 469 horsepower (265 or 350 kilowatts). Kenworth says the truck delivers enough torque to start from a stop on a 20% grade when fully loaded and can maintain 40 mph (64 km/h) on a 6% grade.

The K270E is available with a 141- or 282-kilowatt high-density battery pack. The former provides an up to 100-mile (161-kilometer) driving range on one charge and has a 1-hour DC rapid recharge time. The 282-kW battery gives the truck a 200-mile (322-km) range on a single charge and a 2-hour rapid DC recharge time.

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Kenworth introduced the Class 6, medium-duty K270E in 2020 alongside the K370E, a Class 7 battery-electric truck. (Photo courtesy of Kenworth.)

Putting In The Miles

Kittle’s Furniture equipped its K270E with a 282-kW battery pack that delivers up to 355 HP. It uses a 20-kW wall charger from Paccar Parts to recharge the truck, which entered service in November 2023. The company has six retail locations in Indiana and expects the truck to log roughly 20,000 mi (32,186 km) per year. Company drivers complete up to 400 weekly deliveries, with more than half originating at the company’s superstore in Castleton, Indiana.

“The K270E serves those customers and goes back and forth to our distribution center, normally putting in between 75 to 100 miles per day,” says Baker. “We have gone as many as 150 miles between charges, and the truck has performed nicely.”

Quick & Quiet Performance

Baker says Kittle’s Furniture drivers have noticed that the K270E has a big “get-up-and-go” advantage over the diesel-powered trucks in the company’s fleet. “It’s quicker out of the gate than our standard truck thanks to the direct-drive engine,” he says. “And it’s so quiet. That’s taken getting used to, but our drivers like it.”

Source: Kenworth