Truck makers rev up for rollout of electric big rigs

US Xpress Enterprises

22/10/2018 15:00

(Repeats with no changes to headline or text)
    By Nick Carey
    DETROIT, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc  TSLA.O  Chief
Executive Elon Musk put electric heavy commercial trucks on the
map in November 2017 when he unveiled the company's futuristic,
battery-powered Semi, booked hundreds of orders and said he
would start delivering the vehicles by 2019.
    Now, it looks like 2020 could be the big year for electric
big rigs. Incumbent truck makers are accelerating their electric
truck projects toward launches that year, while Musk told
investors in June production of the eye-catching Semi freight
hauler should begin "basically (in the) first half of 2020"
instead of 2019. 
    Driven by regulatory pressure to cut diesel pollution,
commercial truck makers have made a flurry of fresh
announcements to deliver battery electric or hydrogen-fueled
vehicles. They have landed orders from big fleet operators such
as Walmart Inc  WMT.N , United Parcel Service Inc  UPS.N  and
Anheuser Busch Inbev NV  ABI.BR .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1WY1ZC  
    The challenge is gauging how big the market for electric
commercial trucks will be, especially outside of China.
    The limited range of most first-generation electric or
hydrogen commercial trucks and a lack of charging infrastructure
threaten to limit sales to short-haul operations.
    In China, regulators are considering a long-term plan to
replace 1 million diesel big rigs with cleaner trucks, including
electric models, and some Chinese ports and cities are banning
diesel trucks, which could significantly boost sales.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VZ2TF
    In the United States, the outlook for electric truck demand
is cloudier. Some analysts estimate that by the mid-2020s, U.S.
annual electric truck sales may number only in the hundreds.
Over the last 12 months, North American diesel and so-called
semitruck orders totaled 497,000 units.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1WJ0ED
    Toyota Motor Corp's  7203.T  experience at the Ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach illustrates the potential, and the
problems for clean truck technology.
    The first of Toyota’s working hydrogen fuel-cell trucks was
designed with a 200-mile (322 km) range for daily operations and
has already logged more than 10,000 miles running short routes
around the ports. 
    The newer second iteration has a 300-mile range but that is
still well short of the 1,000 miles or more diesel trucks can
run between refueling stops.
    Toyota has not provided a production timeline, but executive
program manager Chris Rovik said “so far we feel confident the
technology is absolutely applicable to this type of use case.”
    
    "CHICKEN AND EGG PROBLEM"
    Fueling infrastructure is a major headache for electric and
hydrogen trucks.
    Hyundai Motor Co  005380.KS  commercial vehicle director
Mark Freymueller describes a chicken-and-egg problem: Trucking
companies are reluctant to buy trucks without fueling stations,
but fuel station operators will not install them without
trucking customers.
    Battery electric trucks can take hours to recharge and
charging stations are scarce in most U.S. states. Hydrogen
trucks can be refueled in about the same time as a diesel truck
- but hydrogen refueling stations are even rarer, with most
concentrated in California.
    "Fueling infrastructure is a very important first step,"
said Chris Cannon, chief sustainability officer for the Port of
Los Angeles. "The trucks may work great, but if they can't get
any fuel they can't operate."    
    Last month, the California Air Resources Board announced $41
million in grants to the port toward building 10 new hydrogen
fuel-cell electric trucks to be developed by Toyota and Paccar
Inc  PCAR.O  unit Kenworth. The grant will also partly-fund two
new hydrogen fuel stations to be built by Royal Dutch Shell Plc
 RDSa.AS . 
    Most manufacturers see short-haul routes such as drayage
services to or from ports or rail yards as likely first adopters
of electric or hydrogen trucks. 
    "We think the first applications are going to be shorter
haul," said Denny Mooney, Navistar International Corp's  NAV.N 
vice president of engineering. "We're going to start out where
the business makes sense."
    Tesla customers like Deutsche Post  DPWGn.DE  unit DHL,
which has ordered 10 Semis, say they could save tens of
thousands of dollars on maintenance and fuel annually.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1QC7DH 
    CEO Musk says the Semi's range could hit 600 miles. But a
spokesperson said running uphill with air conditioning on or
running other appliances would cut that range. Many modern
18-wheelers contain televisions, fridges and other appliances.
    Package delivery giant UPS has pre-ordered 125 Tesla Semis
and will use them on daily routes hauling packages between hubs
and on UPS Freight routes between businesses - mostly shorter
routes.
    "In many ways we are ideally suited to be an early adopter
of this technology because we don't have much long-haul
business," said UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara.
    Tesla is working with potential customers including UPS,
Pepsico  PEP.O  and Anheuser-Busch to build charging stations at
their facilities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1PS01D
    Nikola Motor Co, a startup offering a fuel cell truck, has
ambitious multibillion-dollar plans to build 700 U.S. hydrogen
fueling stations over the next decade, starting along the major
routes of Anheuser-Busch, which has ordered up to 800 trucks,
says CEO Trevor Milton. Nikola has secured funding for those
stations, he said.

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FACTBOX-Manufacturers' plans for electric big rig trucks   
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 (Additional reporting by Eric Johnson in Seattle, Hyunjoo Jin
in Seoul, Norihiko Shirouzu and Yilei Sun in Beijing; Editing by
Tom Brown)
 ((nick.carey@thomsonreuters.com; +1 312 636 8837;))