Heavy Duty Trucking, May 2019

HDT MAY 2019 32 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM Prediction Electric trucks are going to be a hit Jack Roberts Senior Editor jroberts@ truckinginfo com @ By_ JackRoberts If you were new to trucking and held no preconceived conceptions of diesel or gasoline power theres no reason you wouldnt buy an electric truck to put to work in your urban delivery fleet Jack has become known for his reporting on advanced technology such as intelligent drivetrains advanced driver assist systems autonomous vehicle technology truck platooning and alternative fuels He can be reached at jroberts@ truckinginfo com or 310 533 2521 f you were new to trucking and held no preconceived conceptions of diesel or gasoline power theres no reason you wouldnt buy an electric truck to put to work in your urban delivery fleet For starters most electric trucks today are converted diesel trucks People see these trucks every single day and hardly give them a second glance In fact the only reason someone might take note of that truck rolling down a city street is because its not emitting the usual diesel engine noises In terms of handling comfort visibility and performance these trucks perform the same as or better than their diesel counterparts The electric truck is immensely quieter inside the cab so a driver can hear outside noises including pedestrians calling out warnings In terms of low end acceleration the electric truck gets up and going quicker than most gasoline or diesel trucks There is a finite daily battery charge on an all electric truck and that does limit its operational range until it completes a currently lengthy recharge period But Im not so sure the range anxiety argument is going to carry weight much longer An electric truck is designed to do a certain job in a certain place for a certain amount of time distance If youre willing to accept those operational conditions and your application matches an electric trucks capabilities theres no reason to not consider using them to get your work done What about acquisition costs True they are much higher than a diesel or gasoline powered truck On the other hand there are numerous state and federal incentive plans available to help mitigate those costs And price points for batteries and electric drivetrain components are falling rapidly as production ramps up Soon its likely electric trucks will be on par with conventional trucks in terms of acquisition costs But even if they eventually wind up being say 25 more than a diesel or gasoline truck when it comes to purchase price youre never going to buy a single drop of gasoline or diesel fuel for that vehicle True your electric bill is going to go up But your daily monthly and yearly energy costs to operate that vehicle are going to stabilize and become constant almost immediately And you will largely be immune to any wild fuel price swings because of what someone in the Middle East decides to do Yes there are some upfront costs associated with switching your facilities over to handling recharging a fleet of electric trucks But as Rocco Rocky DiRico deputy commissioner for the Department of Sanitation New York told me last year those costs are minor compared with revamping a facility to handle compressed natural gas powered trucks And dont forget about maintenance costs Depending on who youre talking to most experts say there are anywhere from 2000 to 5000 fewer moving parts on an electric truck than one with an internal combustion engine So it stands to reason that maintenance costs will reflect that factor in a significant way At the end of the day an electric truck is really just another truck Were not talking about wildly exotic technology here Were not talking anything difficult to deal with in terms of how your fleet operates or your drivers behave And my sense is that as more fleet managers climb behind the wheel of electric trucks and judge both those positives and negatives for themselves more of them will start to feel the same way I do about this new technology FUTURE FLEET I At the end of the day an electric truck is simply just a truck with a different set of capabilities and limitations PHOTO JACK ROBERTS