Zero-Emissions Vehicles Roll Out in California Freight Operations
WASHINGTON — Truck manufacturer Michael Simon asserted to transportation professionals that electric trucks are something that customers will buy.
Simon’s TransPower Inc. of Poway, California, is 5 years old and makes on-road, heavy-duty trucks and yard tractors powered by batteries. He spoke Jan. 11 at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting as part of discussions on zero-emissions vehicles.
“Contrary to popular belief, there actually are 80,000-pound, Class 8 trucks operating on an everyday basis using an electric-powered battery and producing zero emissions,” said Simon, a 38-year transportation veteran. “There are customers who feel that there’s a business case for these vehicles.”
TransPower currently has 14 vehicles in service — nine on-road trucks and five yard tractors. By the end of next year, Simon expects the fleet to grow to 50 vehicles, 34 trucks and 16 yard tractors.
A decade ago, he was working for a company that produced hybrid trucks whose fuel economy was marginally better than that of conventional diesel-powered vehicles. TransPower’s trucks were five years in the making before they became operational last year.
Among the firms using TransPower’s road trucks are California Cartage Co., National Retail Transportation and Total Transportation Services Inc. Knight Transportation, Pasha Trucking and 3 Rivers Trucking are soon to receive theirs.
California Cartage Co. ranks No. 72 and Knight Transportation ranks No. 31 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers,
Simon said the trucks save $378,000 in energy costs during a 300,000-mile working lifetime. In contrast, diesel-powered trucks often roll through more than 1 million miles before being scrapped.
APM Terminals, Ikea, Osterkamp Transportation Group and Pasha are using the yard tractors that Simon said will save $121,500 during a 150,000-mile lifetime. According to testing done at the University of California-Riverside, TransPower’s trucks reduce energy costs by 85% and greenhouse-gas emissions by 67%.
TransPower’s yard tractors have driven 17,000 miles at Ikea while operating on all three shifts. All told, they’ve traveled 45,000 miles.
Among the challenges preventing true large-scale market penetration are: Batteries have improved but still make the trucks 6,000 pounds heavier than diesel models; on-road trucks can travel only 80 to 100 miles fully loaded before they run out of power; and they cost two to three times more than a conventional truck. The eight- to 10-year payback in greatly reduced energy costs is longer than most owners’ “investment horizon,” said Simon, who hopes to cut that period in half in the not-too-distant future.
Simon said he believes that TransPower’s adapted Fisker engines, combined with Eaton Corp. automated manual transmissions, go a long way toward solving those problems. Currently, the plug-in vehicles work only in small, niche applications.
During wide-ranging discussions about nonpolluting methods for trucking, especially in California, some think the phenomenon has its challenges.
“There’s a clear path to zero emissions, [but] I don’t think the tools are in place to make that happen,” said Thomas Jelenic, vice president of planning for Highland Fairview, a large-scale industrial developer in Southern California. “Until industry has clear markers . . . they will not produce that vehicle. [And] unless people are able to buy hundreds or thousands of trucks, it’s not going to change what we have deployed.”
Some of the panelists agreed there are considerable challenges to achieving zero emissions.
“You have to have a market pull,” said Matt Miyasato of California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District, adding, “If we can get the funding in place to push the technology, then we can potentially get to larger orders and then larger volumes.”
The Department of Energy’s Robert Graham regards political challenges as the biggest obstacle.
“I don’t think that, from a political perspective, there is the will, especially in the statehouses and the federal government, to spend the kind of money that will be necessary to really, truly move the market,” Graham said.
James Jack, executive director of the Sacramento, California-based Coalition for Responsible Transportation, said he is less concerned about political will because his state is a leader in rigorous emissions enforcement. Money is the concern for him.
“The incremental cost to move to these technologies can be incredibly expensive,” Jack said.
Dawn Fenton, director of sustainability and public affairs for Volvo Trucks in North America, agreed, in part, that costs are a challenge, but she said it is more important for the technology to make business sense.
“You can basically make those brand new vehicles almost free through purchase incentives,” Fenton said.
“But if the customers don’t want it, they’re not going to buy it, and if the customer doesn’t buy it, the OEM doesn’t make any money and doesn’t stay in business,” Fenton added.
