Electric trucks, a niche market a year ago, are turning into a full-fledged industry as major players such as Daimler, Mack and Tesla throw their hats into the electric trucking ring.
Just in the past month, all three announced plans to move into heavy trucking, assuring that a flood of investment dollars will go into weaning trucks from carbon-based fuels. They join other players, such as Chinese vehicle maker BYD and the fledging Nikola Motors truck company, also pushing into electric big rigs.
But even so, analysts say the speed at which automakers will be able to produce trucks and the pace at which the trucking industry adopts them will be slow at least through the next decade.
“Consumers tend to be more aggressive with new technology, but the trucking industry always has been conservative when it comes to new drive-trains,” said Colin Rusch, managing director of research at New York-based investment bank Oppenheimer & Co.
The technological and logistical challenges include getting enough battery life to make transporting heavy loads viable and making the price of the vehicles affordable, analysts said.
It’s unlikely that companies will purchase electric vehicles in large quantities to start, Rusch said. Executives at large fleets would probably purchase one or two of the vehicles to ensure the new technology works well enough to warrant more purchases.
For now, environmental regulation looks to be the main driver fostering electric truck development.
The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, last week issued its final draft of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan, a blueprint for reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions created by the state’s freight transport system.
It calls for the deployment of more than 100,000 trucks and other freight transporting equipment capable of zero-emission operation by 2030.
To read the full story, visit https://www.trucks.com/2016/08/03/electric-truck-industry-gathering-steam.