Cutting through all the hype around electrification of heavy-duty trucks' powertrains, a reality check of sorts came recently with results of a survey Overdrive conducted around truck purchasing and leasing in both new and used markets. The survey ended with a question aimed at gauging owner-operators' interest in burgeoning development going on around electric drive. Asked to characterize their interest, roughly 7 in 10 of the nearly 500 survey respondents indicated no interest whatsoever.
What's more, just a single percent had talked with manufacturers and/or their representatives about current/future availability of electric powertrains.
There's a reason for that, of course – the technology transition under way simply has not become viable in any significant way for the longer-run requirements of the kinds of operations where most Overdrive readers are in business. At once, the pace of tech development is certainly accelerating.
Niki Okuk is currently a deputy director at the Calstart nonprofit organization, charged with administering a couple of the state of California's big incentive programs for truck owners looking to upgrade the fleet to cleaner technologies. Up to two years ago, Okuk operated a small fleet of four trucks, two pulling containers out of the Port of Long Beach in addition to two local box trucks. The high cost of real estate drove the company out of business, essentially, Okuk said, and since, she's become a valuable asset to Calstart with a goal of bringing smaller and more local fleets into those state incentive programs too often only utilized by larger companies.
When she came to Calstart, she said, "the thing that I really noticed quickly was that the companies that take the most advantage of these incentive programs are those who have grant writers on staff and who can follow the convoluted path" toward grant money.
And regulation, she feels, is coming, with so-called "zero-emissions" mandates in talks at the California Air Resources Board, previously reported here in Overdrive. When it comes to regs as a small fleet, Okuk said, "so often we wait until the regulation is requiring" something before ever bothering to get necessary information to implement. "With electric, you really need a nine-month lead time in planning" before any switch.
[Related: Owners need to engage with zero-emisssions targets out West]
