INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana—While zero-emission vehicles still face significant challenges, the gradual improvement of heavy-duty vehicles’ zero-emission powertrains marches on.
“Not to be dramatic, but we are at a space in transportation and mobility that our industry—and the world—hasn't seen in a hundred years,” Brett Wilson, Ryder System's partnerships director for EVs and advanced vehicle technology, said during a 2024 FTR Conference panel here on zero-emission vehicle adoption. “The last time we were at this revolutionary of a change in mobility was in the early 1920s, when we were switching from wagons to cars. We didn’t have the infrastructure then, and we’ve gotten accustomed to 100 years of having gas stations on the street. We’re at the spot now where we have to rethink all mobility."
Wilson was joined by experts from zero-emission OEM Nikola, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, and J.B. Hunt (No. 4 on the FleetOwner 500: For-Hire), who shared their challenges and hopes of freight's current and future ZEV adoption as the transportation industry approaches a powertrain inflection point.
“We are now having to ask customers to consider every single phase of their operation,” Wilson said. “When is the last time we had to buy a truck and a fuel station and consider the cost of building a diesel fuel station to fill your truck? We are at that level.”
The modern challenges to EV adoption
The barriers to EV adoption are hard to miss.
Not only are these vehicles still ill-suited for the range demanded of long-haul applications, but their charging/fueling speed, charging/fueling availability, and equipment costs are all still significantly worse off than those of traditional diesel vehicles.
High equipment cost
The greater cost of EVs introduces a significant expense without government incentives.
“The cost of the trucks are much higher,” Greer Woodruff, SVP of safety, sustainability, and maintenance for J.B. Hunt, said. “They're two and a half to three times more expensive than the diesel equivalent. I’m talking $350,000 to $425,000 for a zero-emission vehicle.”
Wilson drew attention to Ryder’s 2024 analysis of the cost of electric vehicle conversions for U.S. fleets. Without considering the effects of government incentives, the annual total cost to travel for a fleet to convert from internal combustion to electric vehicles is nearly double.
The greatest contributor to this cost increase is the price of an EV truck, which Ryder estimated to be 501% greater than the cost of a traditional internal combustion engine truck.
Including government incentives, however, can bring this projected cost below even diesel equipment prices. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, for example, provides incentives that can cover as much as $185,000 per vehicle.
But, regardless of who pays, the price of a heavy-duty electric truck remains well above that of a traditional diesel truck.
Less efficient for hauling
ZEVs not only tend to cost more, but they also tend to earn less. Battery electric trucks are the worst offenders; they can take several times longer to charge than diesel trucks need to fuel and have a range several times shorter—not to mention how charging infrastructure is undeveloped.
“To fill up a diesel truck, it’s going to take you 15 or 20 minutes,” Woodruff noted. “Hydrogen is at parity with diesel ... 15 or 20 minutes. But on a battery electric vehicle, best case, it’s going to take an hour. More likely, it’s going to take two or three hours. So, in the best case, it’s going to take you four times as long to energize the vehicle as with diesel.”
ZEV range does not fare much better than its charging/fueling time. For a diesel truck running a full load, its range can be roughly 1,000 or 1,200 miles, according to Woodruff.
“Hydrogen is about 500 miles, but battery electric is closer to 180 to 250, depending on the operating conditions,” Woodruff said. “And then, of course, you have a weight penalty currently of about 4,000 to 12,000 lb., depending on the make and model.”
Sacrificing more weight for the powertrain, stopping more often to charge, and taking longer to charge all lead to a compound challenge for EV efficiency.
“You end up with this operational inefficiency factor, meaning I’ve got to have more trucks to do the same amount of work,” Woodruff said.
EVs still show promise
Despite these major setbacks, zero-emission vehicles aren’t doomed. EVs could come with key benefits and technological developments could resolve their challenges in the future.
Benefits of zero-emission vehicles
Some major, though mostly unrealized, benefits for electric trucks could be lower maintenance costs, lower fuel/energy costs, and driver preference.
Maintenance costs
With no combustion engine, and a regenerative braking system reducing brake wear, maintenance costs for heavy-duty EVs should fall below the costs for diesel trucks.
“We think maintenance costs could be significantly lower on these trucks, over time, as they emerge,” Mike Roeth, executive director of NACFE and trucking lead for RMI, said. “They have less parts. A lot of those components that we all in the trucking industry have struggled with aren’t on these trucks; they’re much simpler in nature.”
Currently, however, maintenance costs for EVs are still greater than for their ICE counterparts. The Ryder study found that equipment maintenance for EVs may be 23% greater than for ICE vehicles.
“We expect, as Mike mentioned, maintenance to go down,” Wilson said. “But the vehicles are relatively new; technicians are still having to learn, so the costs are higher at the moment.”
Driver preference
Electric trucks can operate more quietly and smoothly than diesel trucks, leading many drivers to prefer EVs.
See also: UNFI deploys zero-emission reefers in California
“They’re a lot less demanding on them physically,” Roeth said. “Driver traction and retention for electric trucks and hydrogen we think are benefits.”
EV range is improving
Roeth noted that the overall performance of electric trucks is improving rapidly. Heavy-duty EV range saw major improvements in just a couple of years.
“In 2021 we did Run on Less Electric and the heavy-duty tractors then were doing about 170 miles of range, give or take given loads and so forth,” Roeth said. “By Run on Less in 2023, which was battery again, those same manufacturers were delivering 250 miles of range.”
EVs are charging more quickly
NACFE’s Run on Less reports also saw fleets’ EVs demonstrate rapid improvements in charging speed, according to Roeth.
“We went from, in ‘21, I think we were charging at like 75 kW or 100 kW. Now we’re up to 180 kW and playing around with 360 kW. In Run on Less last year, we did have somebody that did 410 miles heavily loaded on a single charge and was charged at 750 kW.”
Nikola continues to improve the batteries in its vehicles, according Ryan Clayton, global head of sales for the OEM.
“The batteries today in our trucks are different than the batteries of two years ago,” Clayton said during the panel.
Electric truck powertrains are likely to keep improving as the technology and surrounding market mature.
“These are really early generations of trucks,” Roeth said. “Who knows where the limit is? But they will get better than they are today.”
