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Dive Brief:
- Electrifying the US trucking industry could cost close to $1 trillion, according to a study by Roland Berger ordered and released Tuesday by the Clean Freight Coalition.
- According to the study, fleet and charger operators will need to invest $620 billion in infrastructure and utilities will need to spend $370 billion to upgrade grid networks for commercial vehicles. The estimate does not include purchases of electric trucks, which can cost 2 to 3 times more than their diesel counterparts.
- “Without support, this would lead to significant increases in fares to finance this,” Wilfried Aulbur, senior partner at Roland Berger, said during a conference call.
Dive Insight:
The coalition announced the study as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to release it a final rule this month with stricter standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy trucks starting in the 2027 model year.
Trucking industry groups and stakeholders used the report to push back against the EPA and California Air Resources Board’s zero-emissions timelines, which they consider unreasonable.
“What Roland Berger’s study shows us is that this crazy dash to zero [emissions] exposes the supply chain to a $1 trillion unfunded mandate,” said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear. “This is not in the latest Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.”
Lisa Mullings, President and CEO of the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, said its members will sell whatever fuel customers buy, and charging electric trucks is a key part of the industry’s future as demand grows.
“However, EPA has not adequately considered all of the challenges we face in transitioning to electrifying heavy-duty trucks,” Mullings said. “It will take hours to fuel someone for a few hundred miles. Compare that to today’s trucks, where in about 15 minutes, a truck can have a range of up to 1,000 or more miles. This will fundamentally change the way we move goods across the country.”
Aulbur compared CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks timelines for phasing out diesel-powered trucks to the nation’s rapid adoption of smartphones, which still took 10 to 12 years.
“It’s very different to pick up a Nokia, throw it in the trash and come home with an iPhone,” Roland Berger senior partner said, “compared to building the ecosystem we need.”
Medium-duty charging infrastructure is less expensive, averaging $54,000 per vehicle, compared to $145,000 per vehicle for heavy-duty, according to the report. The group advocates medium-duty sector electrification first and remains technology agnostic, in other words, open to other diesel alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells.
Clean Freight Coalition Executive Director Jim Mullen, former acting head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the trucking industry is committed to pursuing a zero-emissions future.
“We have to work with regulators and lawmakers to make sure it’s done in a way that we don’t see a repeat of the COVID, which was caused by the pandemic,” Mullen said. “Let’s not motivate ourselves.”