How to electrify trucking in the US, one step at a time
The U.S. doesn’t need massive truck charging depots on every major highway to meet federal climate goals. It just needs enough on the right highways — the ones where electric trucks are poised to take off the earliest — at the right time. That’s why the Biden administration has launched a national strategy to identify the highest-priority freight hubs and corridors — and to get states, utilities and the truck manufacturing and freight-hauling industries on board. Several research studies show that this approach can help manufacturers and freight companies comply with rules the Biden administration is expected to announce in the next few weeks for decarbonizing the nation’s trucking fleet. The National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy is a critical piece of cleaning up transportation in the U.S. Heavy-duty trucks make up only 5 percent of vehicles on the road but are responsible for about a quarter of transportation emissions, which is itself the biggest category of emissions in the country. The strategy, released last week, lays out a 15-year roadmap for developing the charging stations (and hydrogen fueling stations) needed to convert the country’s more than 20 million cargo vans, box trucks, short-haul and, eventually, long-haul semi trucks from fossil fuels. It starts with more than 30 freight “hubs” — the circles on the map that encompass ports, train depots and other concentrations of freight traffic within roughly 100 miles of each other. That’s a range within which today’s battery-electric trucks have shown they can effectively operate on daily routes on a cost-competitive basis with diesel-fueled trucks. The next phase will start connecting these hubs via designated roadways dubbed National EV Freight Corridors. These arteries will be targeted for the deployment of more charging and refueling infrastructure to enable increasingly longer routes that are starting to become possible with newer electric heavy-duty trucks and, eventually, the trucks traveling the hardest-to-electrify interstate and cross-country routes. The new strategy, released by the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and the federal departments of Energy and Transportation, calls for an “all-of-government approach to aligning investments and accelerating sustainable and scalable deployment of reliable” zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicle infrastructure. That “all-of-government” approach lines up with what the trucking and freight industries are demanding from the Biden administration, said Ray Minjares, heavy-duty vehicles program director at the International Council on Clean Transportation. Last year, the nonprofit research group published an analysis indicating that prioritizing early EV truck-charging investments in up to 10 key states, including California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, can satisfy nearly half of the forecasted needs of zero-emissions trucks by 2030. “When I talk to truck manufacturers, what they tell me is, ‘We don’t need infrastructure everywhere to max out production volumes we’ve got in place today,’” Minjares said. Instead, they’re looking for a “buildout of charging infrastructure in those places where the business case is strongest.” That view was echoed by nonprofit and industry groups reacting to last week’s launch of the Biden administration strategy. “We don’t need to build everything, everywhere, all at once,” Guillermo Ortiz, clean vehicles advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a prepared statement. “This phased approach will allow our nation to electrify the largest number of trucks along the most-traveled highways.” The central role of charging infrastructure in the EPA’s new clean-trucks rule On the heels of releasing this national strategy to decarbonize trucking, the federal government is gearing up to finalize its toughest-ever rules on emissions from trucking. The rules will tell the industry where it needs to go and how fast, while the new strategy helps give it the roadmap to getting there. EPA’s proposed rule for trucks, officially known as the GHG Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3 rule, was introduced last April and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles by 29 percent below 2021 levels by 2032, starting with new vehicle models in 2027. It’s similar to the rule that EPA finalized for cars and light trucks this week, but instead will apply to the country’s largest and highest-emitting vehicles. While truck manufacturers could improve the efficiency of fossil-fueled vehicles or introduce hydrogen-fueled vehicles to meet the standards, the rapid improvements in the cost and range of electric trucks make them the likely choice for manufacturers looking to comply. Reducing truck emissions is vital for climate change and environmental justice. Beyond their carbon emissions, diesel-fueled heavy-duty vehicles also emit air pollution that disproportionately harms communities near ports, warehouses and highways, many of them populated by lower-income households and people of color. Three-quarters of heavy-duty truck traffic travels on just 4 percent of U.S. roads, “jeopardizing the health of our most vulnerable communities,” Ali Zaidi, White House national climate advisor, noted in last week’s announcement. But since it introduced the proposed rule last year, the Biden administration has faced pushback from the trucking and truck-manufacturing industries. Much of it has been tied to fears of inadequate expansion of charging infrastructure to support the scope of the rule’s ambitions, which are aligned with the Biden administration’s goal of zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles reaching 30 percent of total sales by 2030. The Truck and Engine Manufacturers’ Association (EMA) and American Trucking Association trade groups have asked the EPA to extend the deadlines for vehicles to comply with its rules to 2030. The groups have also asked the EPA to include an “off-ramp” that would weaken the standards if infrastructure deployment targets aren’t met. In an April statement, EMA President Jed Mandel said that “adequate electricity charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructures is imperative — not only to power those vehicles so they can move the freight that fuels our economy, but also to give our customers the confidence to purchase [zero-emissions vehicles] and retire their older, higher-emitting vehicles.” Major truck manufacturers and EMA members Daimler Truck and Volvo Group — both of which have pledged to rapidly expand their production of electric heavy-duty trucks — have also asked EPA to delay compliance deadlines, citing concerns about adequate charging infrastructure.
The U.S. doesn’t need massive truck charging depots on every major highway to meet federal climate goals. It just needs enough on the right highways — the ones where electric trucks are poised to take off the earliest — at the right time. That’s why the Biden administration has launched a national strategy to…
The U.S. doesn’t need massive truck charging depots on every major highway to meet federal climate goals. It just needs enough on the right highways — the ones where electric trucks are poised to take off the earliest — at the right time.
That’s why the Biden administration has launched a national strategy to identify the highest-priority freight hubs and corridors — and to get states, utilities and the truck manufacturing and freight-hauling industries on board.
Several research studies show that this approach can help manufacturers and freight companies comply with rules the Biden administration is expected to announce in the next few weeks for decarbonizing the nation’s trucking fleet.
The National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy is a critical piece of cleaning up transportation in the U.S. Heavy-duty trucks make up only 5 percent of vehicles on the road but are responsible for about a quarter of transportation emissions, which is itself the biggest category of emissions in the country.
The strategy, released last week, lays out a 15-year roadmap for developing the charging stations (and hydrogen fueling stations) needed to convert the country’s more than 20 million cargo vans, box trucks, short-haul and, eventually, long-haul semi trucks from fossil fuels. It starts with more than 30 freight “hubs” — the circles on the map that encompass ports, train depots and other concentrations of freight traffic within roughly 100 miles of each other. That’s a range within which today’s battery-electric trucks have shown they can effectively operate on daily routes on a cost-competitive basis with diesel-fueled trucks.
The next phase will start connecting these hubs via designated roadways dubbed National EV Freight Corridors. These arteries will be targeted for the deployment of more charging and refueling infrastructure to enable increasingly longer routes that are starting to become possible with newer electric heavy-duty trucks and, eventually, the trucks traveling the hardest-to-electrify interstate and cross-country routes.
The new strategy, released by the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and the federal departments of Energy and Transportation, calls for an “all-of-government approach to aligning investments and accelerating sustainable and scalable deployment of reliable” zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicle infrastructure.
That “all-of-government” approach lines up with what the trucking and freight industries are demanding from the Biden administration, said Ray Minjares, heavy-duty vehicles program director at the International Council on Clean Transportation. Last year, the nonprofit research group published an analysis indicating that prioritizing early EV truck-charging investments in up to 10 key states, including California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, can satisfy nearly half of the forecasted needs of zero-emissions trucks by 2030.
“When I talk to truck manufacturers, what they tell me is, ‘We don’t need infrastructure everywhere to max out production volumes we’ve got in place today,’” Minjares said. Instead, they’re looking for a “buildout of charging infrastructure in those places where the business case is strongest.”
That view was echoed by nonprofit and industry groups reacting to last week’s launch of the Biden administration strategy.
“We don’t need to build everything, everywhere, all at once,” Guillermo Ortiz, clean vehicles advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a prepared statement. “This phased approach will allow our nation to electrify the largest number of trucks along the most-traveled highways.”
The central role of charging infrastructure in the EPA’s new clean-trucks rule
On the heels of releasing this national strategy to decarbonize trucking, the federal government is gearing up to finalize its toughest-ever rules on emissions from trucking. The rules will tell the industry where it needs to go and how fast, while the new strategy helps give it the roadmap to getting there.
EPA’s proposed rule for trucks, officially known as the GHG Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3 rule, was introduced last April and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles by 29 percent below 2021 levels by 2032, starting with new vehicle models in 2027. It’s similar to the rule that EPA finalized for cars and light trucks this week, but instead will apply to the country’s largest and highest-emitting vehicles.
While truck manufacturers could improve the efficiency of fossil-fueled vehicles or introduce hydrogen-fueled vehicles to meet the standards, the rapid improvements in the cost and range of electric trucks make them the likely choice for manufacturers looking to comply.
Reducing truck emissions is vital for climate change and environmental justice. Beyond their carbon emissions, diesel-fueled heavy-duty vehicles also emit air pollution that disproportionately harms communities near ports, warehouses and highways, many of them populated by lower-income households and people of color. Three-quarters of heavy-duty truck traffic travels on just 4 percent of U.S. roads, “jeopardizing the health of our most vulnerable communities,” Ali Zaidi, White House national climate advisor, noted in last week’s announcement.
But since it introduced the proposed rule last year, the Biden administration has faced pushback from the trucking and truck-manufacturing industries. Much of it has been tied to fears of inadequate expansion of charging infrastructure to support the scope of the rule’s ambitions, which are aligned with the Biden administration’s goal of zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles reaching 30 percent of total sales by 2030.
The Truck and Engine Manufacturers’ Association (EMA) and American Trucking Association trade groups have asked the EPA to extend the deadlines for vehicles to comply with its rules to 2030. The groups have also asked the EPA to include an “off-ramp” that would weaken the standards if infrastructure deployment targets aren’t met.
In an April statement, EMA President Jed Mandel said that “adequate electricity charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructures is imperative — not only to power those vehicles so they can move the freight that fuels our economy, but also to give our customers the confidence to purchase [zero-emissions vehicles] and retire their older, higher-emitting vehicles.”
Major truck manufacturers and EMA members Daimler Truck and Volvo Group — both of which have pledged to rapidly expand their production of electric heavy-duty trucks — have also asked EPA to delay compliance deadlines, citing concerns about adequate charging infrastructure.