Migrating from diesel to electric, or even adding electric trucks to your fleet, is not a simple matter of simply flipping a switch. The fact is, you can’t just walk into a dealership and walk out with a battery-electric truck and expect there to be no adaptation problems. There is a great deal more to consider when it comes to BEVs than just buying the vehicle.
While many early adopter fleets are already running electric trucks under limited service, they have also been required to upgrade their terminal facilities to support electrification. So, what does it look like for a fleet who has entered the electrification game? One company, who runs trucks between Chino and the ports of LA and Long Beach says that their electric trucks are working only at the port.
With a typical run of around 108 miles to the port and back, the electric trucks simply do not have the range, whereas the diesel variants make back and forth runs multiple times per day. The company reported in a recent study that while getting electric trucks into service has not been very difficult, keeping them running and optimizing them has proved to be more of a challenge.
Electric trucks don’t come without headwinds. And while California is offering a lot of incentives for trucking companies to make the switch to electric as part of its 2020 clean air action plan, there are still plenty of unknowns to deal with. As one example, many trucking companies wonder what the true cost of ownership is. No one really knows whether the cost of ownership for an electric truck will come in lower than diesel.
How Much Power
Many trucking companies, including those that are running tests of electric trucks, are still trying to figure out exactly how much power will be drawn off the grid to get the trucks going. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average residential customer uses around 909 kWh of power per month.
Now, imagine an electric truck will draw around 2 kWh of power per mile. If you multiply that out depending on the use-case, you could be talking about a home’s worth of energy usage just to run one truck. In many cases, there will be problems with the amount of power available. Or, there just might not be the infrastructure required for wholesale fleet charging.
It is very likely that utility companies will need to make major upgrades as more electric vehicles begin drawing power from municipal power grids and transmission lines. Whether it be adding more lines, upgrading transformers or other changes, power grids may find themselves under a lot of stress. In some cases, if a major fleet requires big upgrades to the grid, they may have to help pay for those upgrades, especially if they are the only utility customer requiring them.
Many big trucking companies are already discovering this problem as they plan for their own electrical infrastructure. Ryder is one such company. As they were looking at 25 different electrical installations across a variety of their locations in California, they realized that many of their locations did not have enough spare capacity for more than half-a-dozen vehicles. Anything more than that would strain the system.
In this scenario, smaller fleets may be at a greater advantage. If you are running only 5 – 10 trucks, you will have an easier time adopting electric vehicles than would a larger operation. Larger operations tend to run into electrification capacity issues far sooner than fleets of a lesser size. While a building probably already has a 220-volt service, it isn’t difficult to install a level-2 charger. Fortunately, for fleets running small, shorter-range vehicles this isn’t a problem. They simply don’t need fast charging capabilities.
It is when you get to larger implementation projects that you run into problems. With modern buildings, it can get a little dicey right around 10 vehicles. Any more than 10 vehicles and it is very likely your building won’t be able to handle the load.
When to Use Power
It is important to remember that utilities will upcharge you if you use power during times of the day when there is peak demand for electricity. It is important to consider that, like diesel, electricity costs vary over time. If you are trying to charge your vehicles in the middle of the day, it is going to cost you more than it does if you charge them in the middle of the night.
It is important to look closely at when your trucks are finished and when they can be charged. While some fleets are installing 550-kilowat chargers to handle up to a dozen trucks, not every fleet has that capacity. You also don’t want to charge a bunch of trucks at the same time, as that will also drive demand charges up.
When you charge at peak time or charge many trucks at the same time, you will pay more for electricity over the entire month because you are running high levels of power over longer stretches of time. To ensure you keep costs under control, you will need to align your charging schedules with your drive cycles to minimize peak demand power use.
Deciding when and how to use power also depends on the infrastructure at your site. Upfitting an existing site with the appropriate electrical service and infrastructure takes both time and money. And depending on the level of install you consider; it may also involve discussions with the utility company. If you are leasing the property, don’t forget to include your landlord in the conversation.
In some cases, the utility company may not even be able to get the power you need to the property. If they need to upgrade transformers to get the power to you, who foots that bill and how can you be assured it will even happen when you need it to?
Don’t Do It Alone
Few fleets have the resources and inhouse expertise to pull something like this off by themselves. It is of vital importance that you work with the utilities in your area and get expert advice on the transition. And even though there may be a cost associated with it, enlisting municipal help is critical. Cities will sometimes pay a part of the cost for an infrastructure upgrade, but usually it is the utility company that foots most of the bill.
When evaluating how long it will take to get electrification off the ground for your fleet, consider the negotiations involved. If you do need to work with a city or utility, it is very likely you will need to negotiate pricing, which will increase overall lead times. You will also probably need to work with an engineering firm. Enlisting the help of an engineering firm you trust will also take some time and research.
Another partner you will need to find is a company that handled installation and facility energy usage and storage. Whether it be adding solar or retrofitting lights to lessen the power load on the building, a third-party installation provider can help you find out there are opportunities to be had. Should you use smart charging to balance electricity demand during peak times? If you can’t answer these questions, your installation partner can.
Fortunately, many utility companies, states and municipalities are getting in on the game. Some utility companies in California, as one example, have already begun reworking their rate structures to move away from peak demand hours and charges. Instead, they want to move to more of a steady subscription model where the entity using the power is charged by how many kilowatts they need.
Subscription models can be adapted depending on how many electric vehicles you run. Five vehicles might have one subscription while 10 vehicles might have another. As utilities companies in California continue to adopt this model, we may see it become more popular nationwide, which is good news for trucking companies who want to electrify their fleet.
As with anything new, there will be different approaches for every scenario. Purchasing electricity as a fuel is a completely new experience for everyone involved. There is no one size fits all approach. Fleets will need to ramp up their negotiation game and get good at observing what their competitors are doing in the electrification space.
While the transition from diesel to electric power is anything but seamless, there are incentives to adopting this technology. Whether it be to save money on fuel or to put a shine on your company’s sustainability efforts, electrifying your fleet is now out of the mainstream. Indeed, as the years go by, we may eventually see a time when diesel variants are suddenly in the minority.