A new study from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) challenges the notion that battery electric semi trucks can’t serve long-haul logistics, but they’re not presenting a slide deck made by pencil-pushers and spreadsheets. They’re proving HDEVs are ready with real-world electric semi trucks covering hundreds of miles every day.
NACFE recently wrapped its “Run On Less – Messy Middle” technology demonstration showcasing a mix of “clean” trucking technologies that includes diesels, bio-diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, and (of course) BEVs in a full range of duty cycles across 13 active fleets in the US and Canada — and, while I’ve criticized NACFE for taking Shell’s money and continuing to promote a “Messy Middle” message that I find disingenuous, they’re doing some pretty heavy lifting here to show that battery electric semis are more ready for prime-time than most fleet managers might believe.
“Take a moment, plan your route from Seattle, Washington, to Bozeman, Montana, on I-90. Your mapping program will tell you that it is 677 miles and will take an estimated 10 hours and 2 minutes. Then day two of your drive from Bozeman to Fargo, North Dakota, on I-94 racks up another 750 miles taking an estimated 10 hours and 29 minutes [and so on],” writes Rick Mihelic, Director of Emerging Technologies at NACFE, for the Commercial Carrier Journal. “On the fifth day, push on into New York City, adding 614 miles. In five days, you’ve taken your truck the width of the country, accumulating 2,967 legal hours-of-service miles.”
“Congratulations,” he adds, somewhat sarcastically. “You’ve just proven a battery electric truck can’t do what a diesel truck can.”
Instead of presenting a hypothetical scenario specifically designed to showcase the strength of existing diesel infrastructure, however, Mihelic proposes an alternative perspective: a real-world example, from a real-world fleet.
“Start in Midland, Texas, and head south to Laredo, racking up a 470 mile day,” . On day two, run around Laredo picking up loads then head north to Junction, Texas, to complete a 301 mile day. Then on day three head to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, getting in 447 miles. On day four, head to Phoenix, another 473 miles. On day five, push on into San Bernadino, California, adding 293 miles. Five days in a truck, a total of 1,984 miles.”
That route? It’s 100% electric. And it’s not the only one.
Real road ready
Granted, 1,984 miles is significantly less than 2,967, but that’s not the point. Over the course of their telematics driven research, the NACFE team tested three BEV semis — a Volvo VNR Electric, a Freightliner eCascadia, and a Windrose R700 — and all of them successfully fulfilled their duties, covering hundreds of miles each day with loads of up to 55,000 lbs.
And they did it, in the real world, without burning a drop of diesel.
Some diesel advocates often over-emphasize the narrative about long-haul trucking, giving the impression that all Class 8 trucks run more than 600 miles per day and they all are running heavy at 80,000 lbs. maximum weights. Facts don’t seem to bother those people. The reality is that the average truck loading is often less than 70,000 lbs., that anywhere from one-tenth to half the time the trucks are running empty back hauls. And especially, they ignore all the telematics data out there from multiple credible sources that show that most trucks are operating less than 500 miles per day.
It’s called misinformation, and it has served vested interests very well. But facts are facts. Battery electric trucks can go the distance.
RICK MIHELIC | NACFE
The NACFE study is the latest in a string of real-world, fact-based reports looking at real-world fleet operations and telematics and coming to the conclusion that, while BEVs may not be ready to replace all diesel trucks today, they can certainly replace a lot of them.
Back in June, we covered an Altitude by Geotab study published earlier this quarter analyzed 2024 aggregated data from Geotab-connected commercial vehicles, revealing that 58% of medium-duty trucks and 41% of heavy-duty trucks drive less than 250 miles between depots. The study focused on medium-duty (Classes 3-6) and heavy-duty (Classes 7-8) truck data gathered from driving patterns, routes, and stops on real roads to determine the feasibility of electric and alt-fuel truck adoption and to help identify the most strategic locations for charging infrastructure build out.
“The trucking industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the need for efficiency, sustainability, and economic benefits,” explains Nate Veeh, AVP of Market Development at Altitude by Geotab. “Our analysis reveals that a substantial portion of medium- and heavy-duty trucks have daily driving patterns that are well-suited for electrification … by using data insights, utilities and other key stakeholders can pinpoint where truck concentrations are and understand their aggregate driving behaviors, to make informed decisions in terms of truck electrification and the subsequent demands on energy grids and location of EV charging networks.”
Telematics integrations can also help optimize a fleet’s charging schedules, both by scheduling EV charging for lower priced, off-peak hours and by identifying the most dependable high-speed charging stations along regular routes to minimize down time for both vehicles and drivers.
Finally, these data-driven platforms can provide fleet managers tools for tracking and reporting things like carbon emissions and overall energy consumption, which can streamline ESG reporting processes and make it easier for the worker bees to get regulators, administrators, and managers the sort of charts, tables, and graphs they love.
You can check out the data for yourself at the source links, above, then let us know what you think about the future of electric heavy transport in the comments.
SOURCES | IMAGES: CCJ Digital; featured image by Maersk, via Volvo Trucks.
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