Contact: Noah Barnes, Electrification Coalition
noah@electrification.org, (202) 461-2371
WASHINGTON—As electric truck adoption moves from pilot to large-scale deployment, reliable charging infrastructure is a primary barrier slowing adoption in the U.S. freight sector. Today, the Electrification Coalition (EC) released a new report, Electrifying the Future of Freight: Strategies to Accelerate Medium- and Heavy-Duty Charging Infrastructure Deployment, outlining the policy and utility reforms needed to overcome that challenge.
Based on interviews with key industry partners, the paper identifies five barriers to electric truck charging deployment:
- High upfront vehicle costs limit charging demand and utilization rates
- Overly prescriptive and/or complex program design
- Grid interconnection delays and capacity uncertainty
- Electricity rate structures are often misaligned with truck charging load profiles
- Fragmented and opaque local permitting processes
The paper outlines 11 corresponding solutions, including targeted vehicle purchase incentives, on-site energy resources, and coordinated local permitting reforms. The paper also highlights lessons that other state- and local-level actors can learn from the trailblazing electric freight hub in Southern California, where ports, utilities, and local governments are already demonstrating how coordinated planning can accelerate truck charging at scale.
The EC is hosting a webinar to discuss the medium- and heavy-duty charging infrastructure paper in detail on Thursday, May 14, at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. Register here.
This paper is part of the EC’s Electrification Roadmap Series, a new policy and implementation guide to help policymakers and industry leaders scale U.S. transportation electrification at a pivotal moment for energy security and affordability. Building on the EC’s foundational 2009 Electrification Roadmap and Fleet Electrification Roadmap, the new series responds to the remarkable evolution of the EV market—from early adoption to large-scale deployment.
“At a time when the war in Iran is causing gas and diesel prices to skyrocket, and American businesses are once again feeling the impact at the pump, the United States must accelerate freight electrification to reduce our dependence on oil for transportation and protect our economic and national security,” said Ben Prochazka, executive director of the Electrification Coalition. “Electric freight has the potential to reduce costs dramatically, supporting affordability while bolstering American energy independence and domestic manufacturing capacity.”
“While the remaining technological hurdles to electric trucking are rapidly being overcome, institutional and market-based barriers continue to slow deployment,” continued Prochazka. “This report examines and addresses those barriers as a coherent system, eliminating bottlenecks and unleashing the full potential of this transformative technology.”
The full report is available at https://electrificationcoalition.org/resource/electrifying-the-future-of-freight/.
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About the Electrification Coalition: The Electrification Coalition is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes policies and actions to facilitate the widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) on a mass scale to overcome the economic, public health and national security challenges that stem from America’s dependence on oil. ElectrificationCoalition.org