The US EPS last Friday announced aggressive new standards for electrification of the US freight truck market.
The new rules take effect for model years 2027 through 2032. Given the many types of trucks and busses, the rules are multi-level. For example, the new rules say 30% of “heavy-heavy-duty vocational” trucks would need to be zero-emission by 2032, while 40% of short haul “day cabs” would need to be zero-emission vehicles.
Supply Chain Digest Says...
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| The Clean Freight Coalition said in a statement: “Rather than mandating a new technology that carries with it exorbitant costs and operational concerns, policymakers should support lower-carbon alternatives to diesel fuel that are currently commercially viable." |
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Today, fewer than 2% of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are zero emission.
Importantly, however, the new rules do not mandate the sales of electric trucks or any other type of zero or low-emission truck. Rather, according to the New York Times, the rules “increasingly limit the amount of pollution allowed from trucks across a manufacturer's product line over time, starting in model year 2027. It would be up to the manufacturer to decide how to comply. Options could include using technologies like hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells or sharply increasing the fuel efficiency of the conventional trucks.”
The rules generated strong pushback from trucking industry groups. That is in part because electric trucks currently cost two or three times the price of a diesel-powered vehicle. Some say those prices could fall as production volumes increase, while electric truck may also have lower fuel savings and maintenance costs.
The American Trucking Associations came out hard against the new rules, saying they will create “unachievable targets and will carry real consequences for the US supply chain and movement of freight throughout the economy.”
In a statement, ATA President Chris Spear said that the “ATA opposes this rule in its current form because the post-2030 targets remain entirely unachievable given the current state of zero-emission technology, the lack of charging infrastructure and restrictions on the power grid,”
Spear added that “Given the wide range of operations required of our industry to keep the economy running, a successful emission regulation must be technology neutral and cannot be one-size-fits-all. Any regulation that fails to account for the operational realities of trucking will set the industry and America’s supply chain up for failure.”
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 The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association said in a statement that “We are concerned that the final rule will end up being the most challenging, costly and potentially disruptive heavy-duty emissions rule in history,” adding that “Previous rules included stringent emission standards that required manufacturers to comply by developing and implementing advanced technologies to improve engine and vehicle performance. The new GHG Phase 3 rule will require manufacturers to sell a set percentage of zero-emission vehicles, which is beyond their own ability to control.”
Also against the new rules is The Clean Freight Coalition, which said in a statement: “Rather than mandating a new technology that carries with it exorbitant costs and operational concerns, policymakers should support lower-carbon alternatives to diesel fuel that are currently commercially viable (such as biodiesel and renewable diesel).”
And one more: Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) President Todd Spencer said, “Small business truckers happen to care about clean air for themselves and their kids as much as anyone. Yet this administration seems dead set on regulating every local mom and pop business out of existence with its flurry of unworkable environmental mandates.”
The EPA agency did make some concessions before issues its final rules. It slowed down the pace at which truck manufacturers must comply with the rule in the next few years, ramping it up sharply only after 2030.
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