Mike Roeth and team at NACFE provide a first-hand, hands on look at electrification happening now in the Run Less Electric video with amazing findings!
Although Willie Nelson was not on the road with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency's Run on Less – Electric is a real-world electric truck technology demonstration, featuring 13 trucks driving real routes, carrying real freight.
The 13 electric vehicles are all charged up and beginning their three weeks as participants in Run on Less – Electric. Through our Electric Truck Bootcamp and interviews with the fleets, manufacturers, drivers, and other interested parties — we talked to 91 people while conducting our fleet interviews leading up to the Run — we were able to identify some preliminary findings about electric trucks. We hope the Run will allow us to validate and confirm these findings with real-world data. Here is a summary of the preliminary findings:
Early adopters of electric vehicles (EVs) are validating an acceptable total cost of ownership (TCO) in urban medium-duty vans and trucks, terminal tractors and short regional haul applications.
EV adoption is occurring throughout North America, but for longer haul heavy-duty semi-truck use has been somewhat limited to California.
There are benefits to EVs (quiet operation and reliability) as well as the challenges (infrastructure and range).
EV truck ecosystem inertia is in its early stages with many solutions emerging that will support adoption in the next several years.
The industry needs to develop standards in the areas of charging, repair, maintenance and training.
There is a huge demand for real-world information on EVs in commercial applications and on charging infrastructure.
The mix of startups and traditional truck OEMs and component manufacturers is expediting the development of creative and practical solutions.
More thought is needed on the best way to gather and manage the necessary data for fleets and manufacturers to measure and monitor their EVs.
Early adopters of EVs are having an influence on improving trucks and infrastructure.
EVs present operational challenges, for example longer charging times than fueling, which these fleets are working to mitigate.
We’ve also posted profiles about the equipment, drivers, loads and charging routines at runonless.com. During our interviews we spoke with all 13 drivers, all of whom are excited about the trucks and more than willing to share their experience behind the wheel of an electric vehicle. The drivers participating in Run on Less – Electric are:
Rene Solis is driving a BYD tractor for Anheuser-Busch
Joseph Villaneuva is driving a Cummins box truck for Frito-Lay
Donald Disesa is driving a Freightliner eCascadia for Penske
Jazmin Vasquez is driving a Kalmar Ottawa electric terminal tractor for NFI
Antonio Grimila is driving a Lightning eMotors van for DHL
Francis Lajoie is driving a Lion6 electric truck for Day & Ross
Ray Hancock is driving a Lonestar Specialty Vehicles terminal tractor for Ryder
Alexander Schaumann is driving a Motiv-Powered step van for Purolator
Conrad Hanson is driving an Orange EV terminal tractor for Ruan
Pat Brandon is driving a Peterbilt 579EV for Biagi Bros.
Michael Johnson is driving a Roush CleanTech truck for Roush Fenway Racing
Jeffrey Howard is driving a Volvo electric VNR for NFI
Stephen Garrett is driving a Workhorse C1000 for Servall Electric
We are collecting data from each of the vehicles and updating metrics daily on the website. Make sure to check out the website to see how the fleets are performing. Throughout the Run we also will be posting video stories from the road. Check them out here. We expect to have a total of 35 videos; 15 are already posted. There was a lot of hard work leading up to the Run and there will be more following the Run when we have to sift through the data and share our findings. But for now, just enjoy the Run and check to see how your favorite fleet is doing.
From Executive Director Mike Roeth and now, a music video from Willie!