NACFE chooses 13 fleets and BEVs for Run on Less Electric

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency has selected an eclectic mix of 13 battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), ranging from Class 3 to 8 and duty cycles across the U.S. and Canada, to participate in its Run On Less Electric (ROL-E).

The current list includes three step-in vans, three medium-duty box trucks, two terminal tractors, and five heavy-duty trucks (four in drayage and regional haul).

These are the 13 fleets and the BEVs they will feature:

Alpha Baking Co. operating a Workhorse C1000 in Chicago
Anheuser-Busch using a BYD tractor in the Los Angeles area
Biagi Brothers operating a Peterbilt 579EV out of Sonoma, Calif.
Cardenas Inc. using an Xos van in Ventura, Calif.
NFI using a Volvo VNR Electric out of Chino, Calif.
Penske operating a Freightliner eCascadia in Los Angeles
PepsiCo’s Frito Lay Division using a Cummins box truck in Modesto, Calif.
Purolator operating a Motiv-powered step van in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Roush Fenway Racing using a ROUSH CleanTech truck out of Concord, N.C.
Ruan using an Orange EV terminal tractor in Otsego, Minn.
Ryder System, Inc. using a Lonestar Specialty Vehicles terminal tractor in Georgetown, Ky.
SAQ: Quebec Liquor board operating a LION8 truck in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TBD operating a Lightning eMotors truck in the New York City area

“They are clearly on the proverbial bleeding edge,” said Roeth of the 2021 participants, who will start their ROL-E. “They are really out there blasting through some of these barriers to help us all.”

Roeth often calls these early stages of zero-emission vehicles as the “messy middle,” and lessons learned now can at least tidy up some of the early uncertainty. By seeing how early adopters handle the complexities, stakeholders ranging from other fleets to utilities and charging software startups can glean new revelations into the nascent sector.

“You don't always even know what questions to ask yet,” noted Rob Reich, NACFE board chair and executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Schneider, which has deployed electric trucks. “[ROL-E provides] the benefit of seeing the variety of applications and equipment. There's a lesson for each one of them, even if we may not do exactly that type of work, because we start to see what decisions are people making and what questions are they asking that we haven't thought of yet.”

And letting other fleets work out the kinks will be invaluable to fleets that don’t have the capex to try their own pilot programs.

“These are expensive endeavors right now: the chargers, the trucks, the time it takes to get it done,” Roeth said.

And by focusing on so many different areas and applications, Roeth said “there’s something for everybody.” This could be as simple as how many trucks can share a charger.

The three-week practical investigation begins Sept. 3 and concludes the week of Sept. 27 at the North American Commercial Vehicle show in Atlanta. NACFE aims to highlight the various real roles in which electric trucks and vans are currently operating — and excelling.

The decade-old non-profit previously published a slew of confidence reports on the topic, though aggregated data and charts only go so far. Run on Less Electric is poised to truly show where these BEVs shine and where bottlenecks and complications may pop up.

“We're showcasing 13 case studies here, but bringing them to life,” Mike Roeth, the executive director of NACFE, who initially wanted to keep the list to 10, but interest and the varying duty cycles demanded that be expanded. “This isn't what might happen or what's going to come or what we think is going to happen; we're going to see real range and real challenges with the infrastructure.”

NACFE will present the findings through its usual method of detailed videos and reports, trying to provide as much of a “behind-the-scenes” look as is feasible.

“How many of us has actually seen something other than a picture of the trucks against the wall?” Roeth mused.

Roeth was quick to acknowledge this year will be “more qualitative” than the two other Run on Less events, one for general Class 8 freight in 2017 and a regional-centric deep dive in 2019. Those were aided by telematics for real-time data and nearly a century of industry experience working with the diesel engines.

NACFE is still figuring out the metrics angle, knowing the ROL-E fleets won’t want to share every insight into the bourgeoning technology. Charging data will likely be shared. Even with the previous Run on Less events, NACFE was careful not to give away fleets’ competitive advantage while sharing vital data such as how modern engines and aerodynamics help fleets hit up to 11 mpg.

“Even without the metrics, this will be extremely valuable for people to understand what it's going to take to get this done, and move electric trucks forward faster,” Roeth said. “We do expect possibly some problems even as simple as not plugging in the truck overnight.”

Along those lines, a big part of this event will be seeing how drivers (who will be announced at a later date) and maintenance technicians handle the day-to day operations.

"It's really exciting to be able to talk to not just the buyers and the sellers of the vehicles, but the people driving them, and especially the people servicing them," said Rick Mihelic, NACFE director of future technology studies. "This is going to give us a great opportunity to get some firsthand feedback for the people that are actually on the ground around these vehicles. And we’ll be able to report on the challenges and their expectations and where they see the benefits and the faults."

The ease in which drivers can transition to driving electric trucks alone will likely provide a treasure trove of insights.

“Learning how to drive this truck is very different than the ones they've been driving,” Reich said. “There's a level of caution initially. The last thing [drivers of electric trucks] want to do is be the test driver that runs out of battery power before [getting] back home.”

It’s a quick learning curve of a few months, Reich said.

“What we've seen over a couple months is that once that comfort level is there, then they're doing a nice job of maximizing the range and learning regenerative braking and all the things that come with the truck,” he said.

Reich added drivers have provided “very positive feedback” on the electric trucks so far.

A series of 10 related webinars, referred as an Electric Truck Bootcamp, will preface the event starting April 20 and ending Aug. 24, and the recordings will be available at NACFE.org.

“Each training will focus on a different aspect of electric trucks,” said Jesse Lund, senior associate at ROL-E partner Rocky Mountain Institute and host of the Bootcamp education series. “We're planning to cover everything from charging build out and power management to driver training and safety to how to work with your utilities and leverage incentives.”

They will feature three to five subject matter experts and are on the following topics: