SAN ANTONIO—This past December, Rusty Rush, CEO and president of Rush Enterprises, and the company’s COO Michael McRoberts sat down with members of trucking media at the Rush Tech Skills Rodeo to discuss the impact of new technology in the trucking space as well as upcoming trucking trends. Of course electric vehicles made their way into the conversation when discussing future predictions.
“I'm probably more skeptical than everybody else,” said McRoberts regarding electrification, “I don't think it's going to be as rapid of an adoption as people may think. If we did, it's just going to drive all kinds of economic craziness.”
McRoberts admitted he’s waiting to see how things play out in the industry when the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Trucks Plan takes effect in 2027.
The current final rule of the EPA plan is more than 80% stricter than current emissions standards, while additional proposed EPA standards impose even more stringent emissions reductions. The White House predicts these standards will push OEMs to rely on fully electric vehicles to reach compliance, and the “EPA estimates that by 2032, if finalized, the proposed rules could result in electrification of… 50% of new vocational vehicles...; 35% of new short-haul freight tractors; and 25% of new long-haul freight tractors.”
Rush Enterprises, a dealer network with about 200 total locations (including 150 Rush Truck Centers) across the U.S., is already working to “electrify” all of its California facilities ahead of the Advanced Clean Fleet Regulations and CARB regulations being instituted. But the amount of electric trucks on the road will be largely dependent upon the OEMs’ ability to develop EVs as capable as ICE vehicles—especially for trucking applications—while also making economic sense.
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Currently, an electric semi-truck gets roughly 200 to 300 miles per charge, McRoberts said, and purchasing one can set a fleet company back $400,000. “You need two of them to replace one—what's the economics in that?”
Government-funded subsidies and tax incentives encourage businesses and consumers alike to purchase EVs, but Rush said fleets won’t be able to rely on these incentives and subsidies in the future.
“The dollars at this point just don't play out right,” Rush said. “You can't subsidize everything forever. Eventually, it has to stand on its own two feet.”
Funding and incentives aside, California will require all light-duty fleet vehicle purchases to be electric by 2035, with 100% medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicle purchase mandates coming soon after.
“That’ll be the truth serum right there,” McRoberts said, mentioning one California-based Rush customer that already told him they have no plans to purchase even one electric vehicle within the foreseeable future.
Where do EVs fit in the trucking industry?
The Rush Enterprises decision-makers could hide their skepticism of electric vehicles being the zero-emission answer to every trucking application, emphasizing that EVs probably don’t have a place in truckload applications in the near future.
“It’s too much weight. It costs too much money,” Rush said. “People will say, ‘With electric, you’re not going to spend as much money on maintenance.’ But it’s going to take more to haul the same amount of freight in my mind.”
Regardless, they both agreed that electric vehicles can fit in the trucking industry.
“I believe (EVs) will end up being market-segment driven,” Rush said. “It’s going to work well for medium duty.”
See also: Roeth: Battery-electric terminal tractors have proved they can do the job
With a similar sentiment as Rush, McRoberts said EVs have a place in trucking, but “it's going to have to be engineered short haul, light load, but there is a place for it,” he said, although clarifying that getting there will require strategic measures, and the pace of those advancements will be in “inches."
Before fleets can adopt electric vehicles, they must also have a way to charge them, and building a charging infrastructure requires additional funding.
“When it comes to electrification, we’ve got a grid to fix, folks,” Rush explained. “We don't even have a grid or the infrastructure (to support full electrification), and everyone is trying to do all this while they're electrifying all the automobiles at the same time. (It) just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.”
“There's 110 years of internal combustion infrastructure out there, folks, and you can't change it in three, four, or five years. You just can't do it that quick,” Rush said. “Will we get there one day? Sure, we will ... But you can't do it this fast. I just don't believe it's feasible. Or somebody's going to have to come up with the money.”
