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Electric Trucks Are Making Moves in California

Electric Trucks Are Making Moves in California

We recently reported on the big moves California is making to ensure the commercial motor vehicles operating within its state lines are electric. While we are nowhere near the final dates for these regulations to kick in, lots of moves are being made in the electric truck market. Today, we are going to look at the latest updates from the electric truck sector. Will fleets be ready for the transition in the coming decades?

Fortunately, California is at least encouraging success in this area with $27 million in funding. The funding comes from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The goal is to replace higher polluting trucks with zero-emission vehicles. The funding has been derived from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust program, which itself was birthed from the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

The total amount that will be transitioned into the program will be $90 million, but the $27 million represents the first installment round. The trucking segments impacted by these funds will be the Class 8 and port drayage categories. The engine model year they will focus on will be 1992 to 2012.

The end goal is to replace commercial motor vehicles of all types, from freight trucks to waste haulers, dump trucks, and even ubiquitous concrete mixers. Obviously, this is a big job, but the state is making both private and public fleets eligible for the program. Still, not everyone will quality. There are specific project requirements required by the state before a trucking company receives funding.

They include:

  • At least one year of proof of ownership over the vehicle.
  • The vehicle (old and new) must operate in California at least 75% of the time.
  • The current high emissions vehicle should be scrapped.
  • The new vehicle you invest in must be 100% zero-emission.
  • The California Air Resources Board must certify or approve the vehicle.
  • Vehicles must be eligible under the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project.
  • The maximum a company can access per vehicle is $200,000.
  • Eligibility is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
  • Applications open as of August 18, 2020.

Truck OEMS Make Electric Moves

Meanwhile, truck OEMs looking to cash in on the coming green revolution are making big moves in the electric space. Freightliner, for example, is charging ahead with testing on their own fleet of electric tractors.

How? Well, Freightliner’s Innovation Fleet recently accumulated more than 300,000 miles in real-world use by customers on roads and highways all over California. Composed of 30 vehicles, the fleet consists of battery-electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks. These trucks are run hard to test integration of electric technology into large-scale trucking operations.

Freightliner has been testing a variety of vehicles in many different capacities. Obviously, they plan for an expanded California customer base for electric trucks. The tractors they include in the program are 10 eM2s and 20 eCascadias. The variety of applications they are testing them in include drayage, regional and local delivery, food distribution, and parcel delivery.

Freightliner has spent a lot of work with trucking companies who buy these vehicles to figure out how to get the formula right. Customers have a wealth of logistics knowledge and expertise that Freightliner needs to get the job done right. After all, designing and engineering thousands of zero emissions Class 8 commercial motor vehicles is not a small job. There is also a tie-in here. The Freightliner Innovation Fleet is supported by the SCAQMD.

The big deal here is the crossing of 300,000 miles of testing. Their next goal is to get to one million miles and more. Once they hit those goals, the company will begin series production of battery electric trucks. They expect a high level of performance and reliability from the vehicles, and certainly their customers will as well.

Here is a breakdown of how the 300,000 miles was logged by the fleet:

  • 5,660 one-way trips between the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to the warehousing centers of California’s Inland Empire
  • 2,500 trips to complete the average local distribution run
  • 41 trips to travel to all 10 DTNA parts distribution centers located in North America
  • 12 trips to circle the globe

Now the question is, when will the vehicles go on sale? Freightliner has planned to begin producing the eCascadia in mid-2022 and the eM2 in late-2022. Still, Freightliner isn’t the only company making moves in the electric space. One upstart has been making huge strides and looks to be an early market disruptor.

Nikola’s Market Disruption Plans

Meanwhile, Nikola, the budding electric truck company, has been busy building five ready-to-run trucks in Ulm, Germany. These vehicles will go through full testing and validation before they are brought to the United States. Nikola’s head of Global Manufacturing stated that they are fast-tracking the development to get the truck to market as soon as possible.

Once the trucks are finished undergoing testing and getting build in Germany, they will be sent to the United States where the company will continue mass production. The final trucks will be built completely in the United States, which is good news for American workers.

The company states that they want to begin building trucks before they have even finished building the construction site. These are ambitious goals, but Nikola has shown a lot of grit in meeting deadlines in the past. Their goal is to be the first OEM that we know of to hit the market with a 300-plus-miles, zero-emission semi-truck.

Initially, Nikola will focus on two vehicle variants, the Tre and the Two. A year after they are released the company plans to release a fuel cell version of their tractors. By 2025, the company plans to have thousands of electric big rigs operating on the nation’s roads and highways.

The plant the trucks are being built in is quite state-of-the-art. Nikola has modeled it on the same theory Toyota plants use. They want to be able to build different models on the same production line, thus increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

Even more, they want to build all varieties, from fuel cell to battery-electric and cabover variants. This way they can better target certain market segments more effectively. The big news, however, is the return of the Cab Over Engine (COE) design. After virtually disappearing, expect electric rigs to revive this concept.

The Return of COE

There were many of reasons COE tractors disappeared from American highways over the past decades. And many of those reasons were directly related to diesel combustion and aerodynamics.  Poorer aerodynamics at highway speeds and less-than-ideal driver conditions, such as sitting atop a roaring diesel and very stiff 12,000-pound suspension, meant that COE designs often wound up in the creative graveyard without ever seeing the light of day.

Truck drivers also drove the push away from COE designs. The truck drivers who operated COEs weren’t sad when they slowly dwindled in market use. Yet, where COEs prosper are in urban settings.  In these situations, maneuverability and visibility are far better than other designs. Being able to see pedestrians and get a good look from the very front of the truck means a safer route.

In fact, if you ask just about any European COE tractor driver and they will tell you they ride far better than conventional trucks from the United States. With electric varieties, you simply don’t have to contend with a noisy diesel, so the ride and experience from the perspective of the truck driver is even better.

Fortunately, the United States is getting some love when these vehicles are developed. The North American version of the Tre will have one advantage over the European version: more room for batteries. Why? Because European regulations limit the tractor wheelbase to 158 inches. In the United States, battery designs are not constrained by wheelbase. Instead, they are impacted more by cost and weight.

Right now, Nikola COE models are designed for 720 Kw/hr capacities and will operate with a range of 300 miles. This actually is better than the Freightliner eCascadia’s 550 Kw/hr pack with only 250 miles of range. Expect trucking OEMs to constantly leapfrog each other in these measures. After all, competition is fierce.

The question now is: Why should you want an electric truck? Consider California regulations, but also consider the needs of your fleet. As electric charging infrastructure improves, fleets will be more willing to make the changes necessary to adopt an electric mindset.

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