Truck makers are teaming up to push for electric vehicle chargers

There are more than four million electric vehicles on American roads, but fewer than a thousand of them are heavy-duty trucks. On Tuesday, the three largest truck makers plan to announce an effort to address that shortage by calling on governments and utilities to help them build many more places to charge big rigs.

Daimler Truck, owner of Freightliner; Navistar, controlled by Volkswagen; and Volvo Trucks have formed an association to push for chargers, improvements to the electricity grid and other measures they say are needed to promote battery-powered or hydrogen-powered trucks.

The new organization, Powering America's Commercial Transportation, will be based in Washington and will also be open to suppliers, nonprofits and other groups.

The companies' decision to work together underscores the extent to which the transition away from fossil fuels is dependent on government support and decisions made in Washington and state capitals. The Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed in 2022, provides $1 billion for electric trucks, including tax breaks of up to $40,000 for companies that buy them, as well as subsidies for charging infrastructure.

But officials are just beginning to distribute the money, and the truck companies complain they have received less attention from federal and state governments than automakers.

“There is a lot of funding available from the federal government,” said Dawn Fenton, vice president of government relations and public affairs at Volvo North America. “There has been little attention to the heavy-duty charging infrastructure so far.”

Only nine fast-charging stations in the United States can serve heavy-duty trucks, according to Department of Energy data.

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, and trucks, buses and vans are responsible for 29 percent of vehicle emissions, according to Calstart, a nonprofit organization whose members work in both industry and government. Poorer communities tend to suffer the most from truck pollution because they are more likely to be near industrial zones or highways.

Eliminating these emissions is difficult. An electric truck requires a large, heavy battery that reduces the amount of stuff the vehicle can carry.

Zero-emission trucks are also two to three times more expensive than diesel trucks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, although prices are expected to fall as companies increase production.

The truck makers say they are committed to selling zero-emission vehicles, but environmental groups have accused them of blocking policies that would force the industry to act faster.

This month, the Sierra Club, along with 40 other advocacy groups, sent out a message letters to the CEOs of Daimler Truck and Volvo Trucks, accusing them of thwarting stricter emissions standards. In comments on proposed regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, both truck manufacturers have lobbied for a slower rollout of new standards.

In the letter to Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt, the group wrote: “Volvo Trucks USA must now focus its efforts and resources on electrifying the transportation sector, especially in the communities most affected by truck emissions, rather than of fighting policies that are needed to move the entire system faster.” The groups sent a similar letter to Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum.

(Volvo Trucks is not part of Volvo, the car manufacturer, and Daimler Truck is separate from Mercedes-Benz.)

Truck manufacturers face less competitive pressure than car companies. In the auto industry, Tesla has won over customers who previously drove cars from Mercedes, General Motors and Volkswagen, forcing these companies to respond. According to market research firm JATO Dynamics, the Tesla Model Y SUV was the best-selling passenger car of any kind worldwide in 2023.

No upstart truck manufacturer has had a comparable impact. Tesla has developed a long-haul electric truck called the Semi, but the company has not yet started selling it in large numbers.

“We would have moved faster in the last five years if a zero-emission truck company had taken the lead,” said Katherine García, director of a Sierra Club program that promotes clean transportation.

Nikola once wanted to be the Tesla of the trucking industry, but has struggled since its founder, Trevor Milton, was accused of defrauding investors by lying about the capabilities of the company's technology. Mr Milton was sentenced to four years in prison in December after a jury convicted him. He denies the abuses and is appealing. Nikola, under new management, shipped 79 vehicles in the first nine months of 2023, the latest figures the company has released.

Truck manufacturers cannot be expected to sell battery-powered trucks if there are hardly any charging points. Electric trucks require extremely powerful chargers and, as a result, larger connections to the electricity grid than are immediately available. Many utilities must upgrade old distribution lines, transformers and other equipment to provide the energy needed to fuel multiple trucks at once.

Brien Sheahan, head of government relations and regulatory affairs at Navistar, said a customer had ordered a fleet of electric trucks and installed 20 chargers at its depot. But, he said, “they couldn't power it through the grid.”

Deficiencies in the electricity grid will “constrain our ability to scale up the industry“ said Mr. Sheahan, former chairman and chief executive of the Illinois Commerce Commission, which oversees electric utilities.

Ms. García of the Sierra Club said that despite the slow progress so far, she was optimistic. She noted that sales of electric vans and other smaller trucks were growing rapidly, in part because California and other states are pushing manufacturers to reduce emissions and incentivize truck buyers.

Delivery vans, such as those from Amazon, use less energy and usually drive relatively short routes. As a result, these vehicles can be charged overnight on less powerful chargers than those required for heavy-duty trucks.

“The market is moving really fast,” Ms. García said. “We're at the point where things are really accelerating.”