Full letter: Industry Letter of Support to President Biden

October 5, 2022 — 24 companies sent a letter of support to President Biden advocating for the U.S. to sign the Global Memorandum of Understanding on Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, advocating to enable 100% zero-emission new truck and bus sales by 2040 with an interim goal of 30% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2030, to facilitate achievement of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The undersigned organizations are committed to transitioning the new commercial vehicle transportation sector to 100% zero-emission no later than 2040. We write to ask for U.S. leadership on zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) by becoming a signatory to the Global Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), co-led by CALSTART’s Global Drive to Zero program and the Government of the Netherlands. The MOU will help drive economic growth and climate benefits that build off the historic investments from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Transportation remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. MHDVs are only 10% of the vehicles on the road but contribute to 28% of total on-road GHG emissions. The MOU ambition is well within our reach: according to an analysis by ERM, the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will increase sales of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 46% by 2029 and modeling done by RMI shows the IRA tax credits will also pull up cost parity for the total cost of ownership (TCO) of heavy-duty electric trucks. For urban trucks that travel locally the difference is 3 years; for delivery trucks the difference is 5 years and for long-haul trucks, the difference is 10 years, with an estimation that by 2030, over 60 percent of new truck sales could be electric.