CALSTART’s Drive to Zero campaign to accelerate zero-emission trucks & buses tops 100 pledge partners including logistics giant DHL | 1.11.21

CALSTART’s Global Commercial Vehicle Drive to Zero program and campaign (Drive to ZeroTM) welcomes a distinguished group of new pledge partners from around the world including logistics leader DHLScania7 Generation CapitalBusiness Region Göteborg, SwedenClimate Change Mitigation TechnologiesTirn TechnologyDiPP-R, Climate Law and Policy ProjectDenver Metro Clean Cities CoalitionAVLEast Bay Municipal Utility DistrictZEV2030Green Energy Technology, and Hubject. Drive to Zero, an international campaign to accelerate the zero-emission truck and bus segment, now boasts more than 100 pledge partners thanks to this influx of pledge partners in the second half of 2020.

“Our pledge partners are international leaders and innovators in their respective fields. They set the bar when it comes to technology, trailblazing business and service models and sustainability,” said Dr. Cristiano Façanha, Global Director of Drive to Zero. “We are honored to welcome our new partners to the Drive to Zero program and campaign.”

Drive to Zero’s goal is to drive market viability for zero-emission commercial vehicles in key vehicle segments in urban communities by 2025 and achieve full market penetration by 2040. By signing the pledge, partners agree to work strategically and collaboratively under the auspices of Drive to Zero to support and grow mechanisms to speed the early market for zero-emission trucks, buses and equipment.

“DHL has already established itself as an early mover in the transportation industry’s drive to zero emissions. We were the first international logistics company to set a specific emissions reduction target in 2008, and in 2017, we made the commitment to reduce all logistics-related emissions to zero by the year 2050,” said Mike Parra, CEO, DHL Express Americas. ”As a global leader in logistics, we see zero-emission vehicles as playing an important role in achieving this ambitious goal and we are already actively increasing the share of green vehicles in our worldwide fleet. We are certain that this collaboration with CALSTART and its members will help us to further accelerate this effort and look forward to playing our part in the Drive to Zero.”

The Drive to Zero program and campaign is built upon a technology strategy, called the beachhead strategy, that identifies the commercial vehicle market segments where zero- and near-zero emission technology is likely to succeed first. Those early successes drive pathways into new segments where the technology can flourish next. A video overview of the Drive to Zero program and campaign can be viewed here.

Other Drive to Zero “pledge partners” include top manufacturers, fleets, governments, infrastructure providers and other leaders like BYD, New Flyer Industries, Arrival, IKEA’s Ingka Group, Ryder, Black and Veatch, Siemens, the California Air Resources Board, the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Oslo, Vancouver and many others. Additionally, Drive to Zero counts a number of national governments as pledge partners including Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. For a full list of Drive to Zero pledge partners, visit our website.

Drive to Zero works collaboratively with the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), Action Towards Climate-friendly Transport (ACT), the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance (TDA) and The Climate Group / EV100. It is an official campaign of CEM under the organization’s Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI). Drive to Zero is now coordinating a “Global MOU” of nations to commit to aggressive zero emission commercial vehicle targets by 2030 and 2050 and set actions in place to achieve them.

CALSTART | Changing transportation for good

A national nonprofit consortium with offices in New York, Michigan, Colorado and California and partners world-wide, CALSTART works with 260+ member company and agency innovators to build a prosperous, efficient and clean high-tech transportation industry. We knock out barriers to modernization and the adoption of clean vehicles. CALSTART is changing transportation for good.

Contact: Roxanna Smith | roxanna.smith@globaldrivetozero.org | 510.326.0390