by Jeff Della Rosa (JDellaRosa@nwabj.com)
Existing heavy-duty electric vehicles can be used to complete about half of regional hauls, especially for routes of no more than 100 miles, a recent report shows. Still, the emissions reductions attributed to electric vehicles don’t look to be as significant when considering the full vehicle life cycle.
According to the report by North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), existing technology is not available to replace every heavy-duty diesel truck with battery electric vehicles, but it is available for vehicles on regional routes of less than 200 miles per day, including those hauling heavy loads.
However, even with compliance with one of the strictest electrification regulations in the United States, the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation in California, this likely won’t be enough to offset the projected rise in emissions based on the expected increase in freight demand in the coming decades, according to a report by RMI. Truck emissions have nearly doubled over the past 30 years and have continued to increase as the industry expands to accommodate a growing economy and a rise in e-commerce.
