Roeth: The good, the bad, and the difficult parts of electrification

Taking poetic license, I know "the difficult" does not follow the phrase "the good, the bad." 

There are a lot of things that fall into the good category when we talk about battery-electric commercial vehicles. From an emissions-reduction standpoint, they are better for the environment. Moreover, they are ready to be deployed in various applications, including vans and step vans, medium-duty box trucks, terminal tractors, and heavy-duty short regional haul. If you don't believe me, I encourage you to look at the data from Run on Less Electric–Depot.

Drivers also love electric trucks. The drivers in both Run on Less Electric and Run on Less Electric–Depot talk about how quiet the trucks are, how there is no odor associated with fueling the trucks, and how responsive they are. As I said, a lot can be put in the good category regarding battery-electric trucks.

However, I will not tell you everything is 100% perfect with BEV deployments. After all, NACFE prides itself on being unbiased and talking not only about the benefits of a technology but also about the challenges associated with it.

See also: A pesky EV question keeps coming up

So, let's get to the bad part. The trucks themselves still have a significant price tag, and batteries still weigh too much, impacting payload in applications that typically gross out rather than cube out. It's still taking too long for infrastructure to be built at fleet depots, and there isn't a nationwide charging network that would relieve some of the range anxiety in the market.

However, those challenges are being worked on, and we are already seeing significant progress. I am confident that those challenges will be overcome because many brilliant people are working on them, and there is a spirit of cooperation among the various parties that make up the electric vehicle ecosystem. I think it's only a matter of time—and probably not a long time—before those challenges are resolved.

That brings me to the difficult category. One thing that comes to mind for this category is battery recycling. We must figure out what to do with the batteries at the end of their useful lives. But I don't think that should stop us from moving forward with battery-electric trucks.

Currently, there aren't many battery-electric trucks in use, so the issue of what to do with "spent" batteries is not urgent. Don't get me wrong. I think we do have to solve the challenge of battery disposal; I just don't think it should be a deal-breaker to getting more BEVs on the road.

In this nascent stage of adopting battery-electric vehicles, I also suspect some challenges that we are unaware of will crop up. Again, I am very confident that the bright minds in trucking will address those challenges as they arise. Trucking people have a long history of rising to the challenge.

For now, I suggest we enjoy the good things about battery-electric trucks and continue working on the bad things so we can resolve them quickly. Let's also expend some energy and effort to start finding solutions for those difficult challenges so we at least can move them into the bad category, where it will only be a matter of time before they are resolved.

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 (NACFE). He 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.