With less than one month until the showcase, Cummins is gearing up for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) Run on Less—Electric (RoL-E), an electric truck technology demonstration. Cummins is participating in the event with a Class 6 box truck powered by the Cummins PowerDrive electric powertrain.
The three-week event, which begins on September 2, features daily performance metrics, and real-world fleet stories documenting the benefits and challenges of deploying electric trucks.
To participate in the event, Cummins is collaborating with Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. Cummins delivered the electric truck to Frito-Lay in November 2020, and the vehicle was immediately put into operation, running daily routes, delivering food products to supermarkets and grocery stores in Manteca, California as well as surrounding communities. According to Frito-Lay, the truck was reliably running up to six days a week, averaging a total of 65-80 miles per day with an uptime of over 95%.
“Cummins is thrilled to showcase our electrified technology in the NACFE Run on Less—Electric,” said Amy Davis, president of Cummins New Power. “A demonstration like RoL-E provides valuable insights for fleets across the country and allows us to continually validate, improve and expand our technologies and portfolio of power solutions. We are developing zero-emissions solutions that improve the environment and continue to provide customers the power, performance, and reliability to be successful.”
After more than six months of field tests and continuous promising uptime results in the Manteca area, the truck is now running routes in Modesto, California. In this facility, Frito-Lay is in the process of replacing its existing diesel-powered fleet equipment with zero-emissions (ZE) and near-zero emissions (NZE) technologies. RoL-E will capture performance data from the truck as it completes real-world work in Modesto.
“In 2017 and again in 2019, NACFE Run on Less projects worked to showcase best-in-class demonstrations of advancements in freight efficiency,” Mike Roeth, executive director at NACFE, said. “With Run on Less—Electric, fleets, along with their truck OEM partners, have the opportunity to establish efficiency expectations for new battery technologies, all the while meeting sustainability goals.”
