LONG BEACH, CA. Four truck manufacturers will share $23.6 million dollars for technology development work on zero-emissions drayage trucks under a grant from the state of California.
Announced at the Advanced Clean Technology (ACT) Expo, the funds went to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the air pollutions control agency for an area that includes the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the busiest port complex in the country. SCAQMD will in turn provide grants to Kenworth Truck Co, Peterbilt Motors, Volvo Group North America and electric truck builder BYD Motors. The four will build 43 zero-emissions battery electric and plug-in hybrid drayage trucks that will be put into demonstration trials in Long Beach/Los Angeles as well as four other areas around the state. Charging infrastructure will also be created as part of the demonstration.
The money for the project was raised through California’s carbon cap-and-trade auction program.
While the ports are important to the area’s economy, the truck and freight activity accounts for roughly half of the diesel particulate matter and 45% of the ozone forming NOx emissions in the state, according to Joe Buscaino, the Los Angeles City councilman representing the port district. The zero-emissions drayage truck demonstration “points the way to a solution to reduce those emissions and at the same time move our economy along,” he said at a press conference during ACT Expo.
“This project will help put the very cleanest short-haul trucks to where where they are need most, moving cargo from the state’s biggest ports to distribution centers and rail yards,” added Mary D. Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
