june2023 - 20

EQUIPMENT
Charging
ahead
Ready or not, electric trucks
are going to be the standard
before you know it. Here's a
progress report to help show
where the industry stands
now on equipment reliability,
TCO, chargers, and more.
By John Hitch
[ ZERO-EMISSIONS ]
E
very year, a totally decarbonized transportation
industry inches closer to reality. When
exactly that will happen isn't clear. Those
several years of inching have added up,
though, and what is certain is that electrification
is coming, whether fleets are ready or not.
According to CALSTART, 5,483 mediumand
heavy-duty zero-emission trucks (ZETs)
have been deployed from 2017 to 2022, with
3,510 last year alone. That's a 78% increase over
the previous five years. Cargo and step vans
accounted for 47% of the total deployments.
The number of ZETs is nowhere near the
1.1 million+ total MD and HD trucks sold in
2022, so most fleets do have time to research
and plan. Some, though, must start phasing
in EVs as soon as next year. According to
California's recently passed Advanced Clean
Fleets (ACF) rule, last-mile and government
fleets must begin adding zero-emission vehicles
in 2024, with drayage, last mile, and yard
tractors required to be zero-emissions by
2035. Work trucks and day cabs have until
2039, and sleeper trucks and specialty until
2042. Touted by the California Air Resources
20 Fleet Maintenance | June 2023
Board (CARB) as " a first-in-the-world requirement, "
the sale of trucks powered by internal
combustion will be banned starting in 2036.
California is merely ground zero for
zero-emissions; many other states will follow,
with federal mandates eventually coming
into play. The truck OEMs all have carbon
neutrality goals, too. Navistar even stated its
S13 powertrain will be its last diesel platform.
And most importantly, initial fleet customers
have been (mostly) satisfied with commercial
electric vehicles (CEVs). Several early
adopters have reported to Fleet Maintenance
their overall success with EVs, attributed to
factors such as happier drivers, reduced maintenance,
and better total cost of ownership.
They also admitted industry-wide adoption
faces some formidable obstacles-
questions that demand answering before
even small fleets start chugging down the
electric Kool-Aid. Will trucks and charging
stations be available at scale? Can batteries
support enough duty cycles to make the
transition profitable? Will the grid be able
to support all these new draws on power?
And will the maintenance
sector so seasoned at fixing internal
combustion engines be able to upskill fast
enough to troubleshoot and repair all the
new electrical components?
The sample size is simply too small and
the technology too new and fluid for Fleet
Maintenance to declare any of these questions
settled. We can, however, offer up what many
early adopters and technical experts have
found so far, and where they have confirmed
benefits and identified deficits.
Think of it as a CEV progress report of sorts,
something to mark how the industry is doing
so far. It might not convince you to place an
order or start drawing up charging station
plans, but we hope it will help guide you
through the transportation industry's most
significant transformation since we traded
in horses for horsepower.
222350535 | Fotoschab, 109632486| Dreamstime
june2023

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