A public session held in Washington state on Monday revealed that officials have very few answers to the hurdles facing the trucking industry as they work to adopt electric commercial vehicles.
The Washington State Department of Ecology held a public meeting on Monday, October 27th, to discuss the recent ZEVergreen initiative launched last month. That initiative was launched to help expand access to electric vehicles for Washington residents through workshops to inform ideas for new policies. Washington State is has adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks regulations put forward by California.
In Monday’s meeting, adoption hurdles such as financial and logistical difficulties were brought up, and were met with very few answers.
“This initiative is to address affordability … there still exist operational challenges, and we really don’t see that changing with the weight of the trucks that are significantly heavier; so less productive and potentially more vehicles on the road,” Washington Trucking Associations President Sheri Call stated during the meeting.
“Another issue under the financing and cost challenges is insurability. [I’m] just wondering if that’s also kind of analyzed and looked at as we move forward here in our, in our planning,” she questioned.
“That’s not something that we had fully thought through at this point in time, but that.. that’s why we’re having this call, right?” Ecology Zero Emissions Vehicle Specialist Joshua Grandbouche responded.
He continued by pointing out that electric commercial vehicles are used in other countries.
“We are looking longer term at what might address the weight issue and the logistical issues that you come up with zero-motion vehicles. These are just conversations that we’ve been having with folks and there’s a lot of uncertainty. We are looking at different vehicle technologies, such as battery swapping, that would address both logistical problems, as well as weight issues and cost issues technologies that we’ve been hearing about would be deployable in America, but we do see them deployed in other countries.”
In addition to cost and logistics concerns, Washington Policy Center Vice President for Research Todd Myers urged Ecology officials to come up with a contingency plan for future failures in electric CMV adoption.
“Whatever goals or metrics this program is designed to achieve, that there is a way to assure that those are achieved and what are the standards. Whatever plan you come up with, make sure that you have not just the goals, but a contingency for what happens if you don’t meet the goals.”