Trucking News: Trucking Firms Large and Small Urged to Think Electric

Mike

Well-Known Member
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Regional trucking firms should take a good long look at electric trucks, experts in the industry said. And a lack of planning could be problematic if trucking firms don’t start looking at electrification soon.

“If you don’t look toward the future, all of a sudden, your business goes away,” said Amanda Phillips, general manager of OEM sales at Meritor, speaking to an audience of about 200 trucking officials at the annual Advanced Clean Transportation Expo held at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Phillips said she joined the Troy, Mich.-based parts company a decade ago and did not expect to be talking about electrification. But the truck market changed, and an appetite for zero-emissions vehicles grew.

On April 23, the first day of the ACT Expo, the conference gathered four trucking industry officials to discuss how to shape the future of regional freight movement, with a focus on electrification and connectivity. Industry experts at ACT Expo told Transport Topics that they see great use for electric trucks in drayage and regional freight movement, where range becomes less of an issue.

Trucking Firms Large and Small Urged to Think Electric
 
The point is a 500 mile range is very limited for OTR applications, especially without a network of charging stations continent wide.

True, but could work very well with that range for line haul applications if they prove to be reliable.

And if those guys are moving freight via electric trucks, that could slash their operating costs depending on the vehicle cost and maintenance costs that come with them.

It will quickly influence the rest of the industry in terms of rates.
 
The deal is that those batteries will be recharged on your 10... do you really want to be limited to 300 to 500 miles per shift?

Costs...depends on what a kWH will be charged for at a recharge station. They said LNG was going to slash costs too. Propane, hydrogen injection... yadda, yadda.

I kind of suspect that electric truck technology has the potential to be viable.
 
The deal is that those batteries will be recharged on your 10... do you really want to be limited to 300 to 500 miles per shift?

A 30 minute quick charge is supposed to give you an additional 400 miles.

With linehaul, recharge stations likely won't be an issue other than the typical cost of electricity as they will charge them at the terminals.

The test will be how durable they are once truly put to work.
 
I’m doing better than I thought. I’m at over 1500 km and still have almost 1/4 tanks. I always forget once it warms up you get better than 3-4 mpg
 
Bet that ain't good for battery life...

Not sure what to expect from them. I wouldn't mind being in one at the company driver level, but no way I would be going out and buying one that my business depended on just yet. I have no intention of providing Tesla or anybody else road testing at my expense.
 
A 30 minute quick charge is supposed to give you an additional 400 miles.

With linehaul, recharge stations likely won't be an issue other than the typical cost of electricity as they will charge them at the terminals.

The test will be how durable they are once truly put to work.
It's nice in theory but just like electric forklifts, you end up with a bunch of half dead ones sitting around because people either forgot to plug it in or were too lazy to or just wanted to f the next guy.

It happens at Amazon all the time. If they're plugged in between shifts, each person is good for their entire run. IF...

And then there's holidays where they rent more lifts/trucks than there are chargers for and even more end up sitting around.

I also don't think trucking companies will want to have twice as many trucks as they have now for the same number of drivers. Since slipseating will no longer be an option.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Top