The North American Council For Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has released two new reports examining the efficiency of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the commercial vehicle market. The reports, titled Electric Truck Depots Are Evolving: How 10 Fleets Grew Their EV Populations and Scaling BEVs in the Real World, tracked 22 trucks and found that battery electric vehicles were suited for widespread use in freight hauling. The research was conducted by Run on Less Electric Depot, a program operated by NACFE to drive the development and adoption of efficient, environmentally beneficial and cost-effective technologies, services and operational practices in the movement of goods across North America.

The data was gathered through real-world scenarios for three weeks to determine barriers to entry and how to scale BEV use in the commercial trucking industry.

“Our early findings fell into six broad categories,” said Mike Roeth, NACFE executive director. “The data collected throughout the 18 days of the Run validated those early findings, which we expect will give fleets confidence in moving toward wider use of battery electric vehicles.”

The study looked at several metrics including total depot electric energy and fuel for all the trucks per day, and determined what that would mean in total electrical energy if all trucks at the depot were converted to electric vehicles.

Roeth noted that ongoing research shows that battery electric trucks are a viable option for some fleets today. He added while BEVs make sense in some applications, there are some challenges to wide-scale deployment and the industry is working on improving their total cost of ownership.

“I am certain there is a lot of information in these two reports and the other work we do that will help trucking fleets in their efforts to decarbonize the movement of goods in North America,” Roeth said. 

Among the key findings in the reports was evidence that the industry is ready to embrace BEV on a larger scale. The report noted that small depots are ready for electrification now and large depots are possible and gaining momentum.

“What we found in the deeper dive of the data over the last several months, by us and several other independent parties, was that our initial findings were spot on,” said Rick Mihelic, NACFE director of emerging technologies. The analyses also led to these additional findings.

The report found one of the greatest stumbling blocks to depot electrification is the need for a wider charging network. It’s believed there is a need for better quality performance data on BEV operations, not measured solely on the vehicle, but also measured at the charger, at the depot and from a utility perspective. 

“These additional findings are things that everyone involved in the move to decarbonize freight movement can be working on,” said Mihelic. “We have built up quite a bit of data that demonstrates that BEVs are working in a wide variety of transportation applications, but we are aware that there are still issues that need to be addressed. Collaboratively and collectively, we can address the changes and improve the TCO (total cost of ownership) case for BEVs for more fleets.”