The U.S. Department is awarding more than a half billion dollars in grants for electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure projects. However, only a few address zero-tailpipe emission trucks as the trucking industry braces itself for tighter emission requirements.
More than $500 million in federal grants will go toward zero-tailpipe emission infrastructure projects in more than half of the states. Projects included in the latest round of funding are expected to install more than 9,000 charging ports.
Although all of the projects are for publicly available charging and alternative fueling stations, nearly all of them are in urban and suburban areas, making them unlikely to be available to large heavy-duty trucks.
However, of the more than 50 projects receiving funding, the largest one deals with zero-tailpipe emission trucks. Specifically, the California Department of Transportation will receive more than $100 million for its West Coast Truck Charging and Fueling Corridor Project. The project will build charging and hydrogen fueling stations for trucks along 2,500 miles of freight corridors in California, Oregon and Washington.
A $4 million project led by the Southeast Ohio Public Energy Council will install eight charging stations within one mile of Interstate 75 in Dayton, Route 33 in Athens and Logan, and Interstate 70 in New Concord. Those charging stations will support zero-tailpipe emission trucks.
Commonly referred to as “zero-emission” trucks, electric and hydrogen-fueled trucks are actually “zero-direct-emission” vehicles, as defined by the Department of Energy. Although emissions measured on a tailpipe basis (direct) may be zero, emissions related to battery production, distribution, recycling and disposal do not have a net-zero result.
More than $300 million of the $521 million in grants are for 41 projects that build out the EV charging infrastructure in communities. The remaining $200 million will go to 10 fast-charging projects to expand the charging and alternative fueling stations along designated alternative fuel corridors.
According to a news release, the number of publicly available EV chargers has doubled under the current Biden-Harris administration. More than 192,000 charging ports are available, and about 1,000 new chargers are installed every week.
According to the Department of Energy, less than 400 charging ports at 90 stations are publicly available for heavy-duty electric trucks. Only 12 of those stations are fast-charging stations, all but two of which are in California. That same database shows there are only 55 publicly available hydrogen fueling stations, none of which are designated specifically for heavy-duty vehicles.
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A lack of charging stations has been a major concern within the trucking industry after the Environmental Protection Agency finalized new rules in March establishing stricter truck emission standards. By model year 2032, 25% of new sleeper cab tractors must be zero-emission trucks. Up to 60% of other truck types must be zero-emission.
The problem could be worse in states that have adopted California’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which will require 40% of new Class 8 tractors to be zero-emission trucks by 2035. In a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the Washington Trucking Associations cited the lack of infrastructure as one of many reasons the state should halt its adoption of the new rules.
Although West Coast states got a boost in funding for its electric truck charging infrastructure in the DOT’s latest round of grants, other states that have adopted Advanced Clean Trucks are still left in the dark.
Those states include Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Earlier this year, Daimler Truck North America, Navistar and Volvo Group North America formed a coalition called Powering America’s Commercial Transportation (PACT) in an effort to accelerate the building of the charging infrastructure for trucks. The coalition is calling the lack of charging stations for trucks “an increasingly significant bottleneck to the widespread adoption of these technologies.”
“Decarbonizing the commercial transportation sector – the fleets that keep America moving – is critical to meeting our nation’s climate goals. But the transition to zero-emission vehicles is stalling without the deployment of the needed charging infrastructure,” John O’Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Truck North America, said in a statement. “Through PACT, we aim to accelerate this infrastructure buildout so that fleets can adopt ZEVs at scale and we can all benefit from impactful emissions reductions as quickly as possible.”
With few public charging stations available to heavy-duty trucks, some fleets are trying to install their own charging stations. However, cities are denying trucking companies the necessary permits because they simply cannot handle the massive strain an electrified truck fleet will have on their power grid. LL
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