Drive to Zero Newsletter – January 2022

Dear Drive to ZeroTM Pledge Partners and Allies:

-leading California demonstrates that ZECV market growth is driven by ambitious goals, strong regulations, and targeted and timebound incentives—all of which are continuously revised and strengthened to ensure its goals are met. These are some of the insights from our most recent report: Building a Beachhead: California’s Path to Accelerating Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles.

Figure extracted from “Building a Beachhead: California’s Path to Accelerating Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles”

We intend for this report to act as a policy roadmap for other regions to build supportive ZECV policy ecosystems and to meet sales goals set by the Global Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles (ZE-MHDVs).

– Cristiano Façanha, Global Director, CALSTART/Drive to Zero

Drive to Zero Program Progress and Updates

Zeroing in on ZEBs and Zeroing in on ESBs

CALSTART’s annual inventory of zero-emission buses (ZEBs) funded, ordered, delivered, or deployed in North America (the United States and Canada) has been released for 2021. Full-size ZEBs have grown to 3,533 buses in the United States, an increase of 27% since the 2020 count, with California leading in deployments. Canada’s count totals to 606 full-size and small ZEBs, with 307 new full-size ZEBs since 2020. CALSTART also released a new report that inventories electric school buses (ESBs) in the United States. As of September 2021, there are 1,738 ESBs funded, ordered, delivered, or deployed across the country. Both reports provide insights on how the coming funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be instrumental in scaling U.S. fleets and dramatically changing health and air pollution impacts.

Clean Commercial Transportation Update (CCTU)

Join CCTU hosts Bill Van Amburg and Alycia Gilde for the first broadcast of the year on Tuesday, January 25th at 11AM Pacific. This month’s broadcast will focus on U.S. federal policy, highlighting the implementation policies and increased infrastructure that will support ZECVs.

Drive to Zero Pledge Partners Update

The Drive to Zero pledge partner network continues to grow, and we are excited to welcome the following organizations that recently signed the Drive to Zero Pledge:

The Drive to Zero pledge partner network now stands at over 135 partners working together to accelerate the market for ZECVs. Learn more about the Pledge on the Drive to Zero website.

News Updates

While there is a growing need at the U.S. federal level to develop national ZECV standards and join the Global MOU, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s (NACFE) latest report shows there are already four commercial battery-electric markets that are “ready to go electric” now. Reflecting NACFE’s assessment of ZECV’s market readiness, a total of six U.S. states have now adopted California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule. The ACT calls for a growing percentage of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks to be sold starting in 2025. CALSTART’s Senior Director, Northeast Region Benjamin Mandel blogged about how New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts are now well positioned as favorable environments for zero-emission truck sales.

This month’s news continued to validate California’s approach to increase ZECV model availability and deployments: Gemilang International will deliver 140 electric school buses to California this year, Nikola has delivered the first of 100 electric and hydrogen trucks to one of Southern California’s leading trucking companies, and the first five of 500 BrightDrop EVs were delivered to a California FedEx Express facility. These BrightDrop EVs are emblematic of the thousands of new electric delivery vehicles expected on city streets as inventories and orders for e-commerce grow worldwide. Construction and refuse also saw promising advancements, with Pan-United Corporation studying the use of electric and hydrogen fuel cells to power concrete mixer trucksand Hyzon Motors supplying Dutch refuse collection company Geesinknorba with 300 hydrogen fuel cell refuse trucks over three years. While these deployment numbers and new technologies indicate important progress, Daimler Truck, Traton Group, and Volvo Group’s announcement to bring a high-performance public charging network for battery-electric, heavy-duty long haul trucks and coaches across Europe should also act as a reminder of the serious infrastructure action still needed globally to support ZECV markets.

Please share new information, potential partners, and innovative practices to achieve our Drive to Zero goals at info@globaldrivetozero.org. Follow us on Twitter @TeamDrivetoZero. Please feel free to share this newsletter with others.

– Emily Varnell, Technical Writer, CALSTART

News Links

Events / Reports

Market

 Fleet Deployments

Manufacturers and Models: Trucks and Buses

Government Policies

Fuels & Infrastructure

Utility Actions

Batteries & Technology

Environment