When it comes to electrifying your fleet, it is a good idea to take a holistic view. What do I mean by that? Rather than look at each element—the truck, its maintenance, the charger, the charging infrastructure, the electricity—as separate pieces, look at them as one. This can help minimize the total cost of operation.
During Training #7 of our Electric Truck Bootcamp, panelists talked about financing the transition to electric vehicles and about some innovative business models.
Several of the panelists talked about the importance of bundling all aspects of electric vehicles into one package and then partnering with someone who can offer electrification as a service. The result of that model would be a monthly fee something like a cost per mile or kilowatt per hour cost.
The panelists urged webinar attendees to move away from thinking about electric vehicles as a capital expenditure and start looking at them as an operating expenditure. Of course, in order for this to happen you need to gather a variety of people together—both from within your organization and from outside.
The point of these conversations and others like them that focus on providing access to EV to independent contractors without long-term financial entanglements or working with green banks is that when it comes to the widespread deployment of electric vehicles, we should not allow ourselves to be constrained by tradition.
This is the time for the entire trucking industry as well as charging system suppliers, utilities, green tech companies, NGOs, banks, etc. to get creative and innovative. The benefits of electric vehicles, in terms of both increased freight efficiency and zero emissions production, means we need to help see that they enter the market quickly in the applications where they make sense. And part of that means addressing some of the challenges of EVs—including their upfront costs and the cost of installing or upgrading the necessary charging infrastructure.
Here’s what I am excited about. The trucking industry has a long history of coming up with creative and innovative solutions, so I am convinced that when we add to the mix the creative minds from the clean tech and electrification sectors that there will be a host of solutions for fleets to use as they move into the electric future.
The NACFE team will be out and about this fall at many trucking-related trade shows. I hope you’ll take time to chat with us about your innovative and creative solutions for getting to that electric future sooner rather than later.
Michael Roeth has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for nearly 30 years, most recently as executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. He currently serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions in engineering, quality, sales and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.
