Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2024 - 15

ELECTRIFICATION | INFRASTRUCTURE FEATURE
Final phase of the planned
U.S. Zero-Emissions Freight
Corridor Strategy would
see roughly 49,000 miles
of U.S. roads equipped with
infrastructure to support
zero-emissions trucking.
" In addition to
infrastructure investments,
the feasibility of long-haul
battery-electric vehicles will
depend on further vehicle and
charger technology advances. "
- Roland Berger study
support emissions-free trucking. This " all-of-government
approach to aligning investments and accelerating
sustainable and scalable deployment of reliable ZEMHDV
infrastructure " surely will include funding to assist
and augment the private sector.
Meanwhile, the CFC study's per-charger cost assumptions
" are actually fairly reasonable, " McDonald
said. " But there seems to be an assumption that the
fleet operators would have to bear the full cost of establishing
on-route charging infrastructure. " This won't
be the case, as is obvious from initiatives such as the
Zero-Emissions Freight Corridor and, McDonald added,
" a growing number of companies like Terawatt,
WattEV, etc. that are building out large-scale on-route
charging hubs for fleet trucks. "
In Europe, Daimler Truck, the Traton Group and Volvo
Trucks in 2022 established a joint venture to install and
operate at least 1,700 " high-performance green energy
charge points on, and close to, highways as well as at
logistics hubs across Europe. The investment was
pegged at 500 million euros. Daimler Truck North
America, NextEra Energy Resources and BlackRock
signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022 for a
similar infrastructure investment for medium- and
heavy-duty BEVs and FCEVs in the U.S. (See sidebar.)
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
At Carnegie Mellon University's Energy Week 2024, Ford Pro's Carly DobbinsBuckland
(center) confirmed that some of the company's EV customers have
experienced infrastructure installation costs that were multiples of initial estimates.
Martin Daum, Daimler Truck Holding AG's CEO, told Bloomberg in
May 2024 that nascent CV charging infrastructure " is my biggest
concern. The clock is ticking, and time is running out quickly. "
" The big challenge right now is probably more the high cost of
both BEV and FCEV trucks, " concluded EVAdoption's McDonald.
" Only fleet operators in markets like California, Washington, New
York City and Illinois - where there are huge incentives - are [BEV
and FCEV] trucks generally even considered. Until the cost of the
trucks comes down, this is going to be a relatively small market. But
once they do, just as we saw with [light EVs], the infrastructure investment
will follow. "
October 2024 15
FROM TOP: JOINT OFFICE OF ENERGY AND TRANSPORTATION; SAE MEDIA
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2024
