Dive Brief:
- A coalition of cargo-owning shippers have placed an order of 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks to advance large-scale deployment of such trucks, according to a Sept. 22 press release.
- Shippers in the coalition include Ikea, Red Bull, Microsoft and PepsiCo. The truck order is organized through the Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification (ZET SCALE), which is jointly operated by Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre.
- Tesla has been selected as the primary original equipment manufacturer for the initial order of the 2,500 trucks with Volvo, Kenworth and RIDE as secondary OEMs.
Dive Insight:
While shippers are pursuing emissions reductions in their supply chains, purchasing Class 8 battery-electric trucks to advance that purpose can come with pricing challenges. Through ZET SCALE, shipper demand is aggregated so that manufacturers could price at scale, Catalyst Mobility President and CEO Michael Berube said in the release.
For coalition member Microsoft, this approach can help turn "sustainability commitments into operational reality," Nico De Golia, director of sustainability for cloud supply chain global operations at Microsoft, said in the release.
“Our participation in ZET SCALE does that for road freight, by signaling real demand for electric trucks so the low-carbon option becomes competitive for moving our cloud infrastructure," De Golia said.
The order of the 2,500 trucks is being purchased by ZET Financial, a finance company, which works with corporate fleets and carriers to integrate them into ZET SCALE, Cristiano Façanha, head of road freight electrification of North America at Smart Freight Centre, said in an email. Shippers can then lease these trucks from ZET Financial’s lease program.
“Shippers then procure freight services from those participating fleets operating the electric trucks, and can thus benefit from more competitive freight rates and fewer emissions associated with those movements,” Façanha said.
ZET SCALE concentrates its deployments in high-density freight hubs, helping improve the utilization of the trucks and their charging infrastructure. The locations for the first round of trucks include Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and several Texas markets.
ZET SCALE aims to grow its model to 10,000 or more electric trucks to create a blueprint for the freight industry to follow. The organization is working to recruit additional shippers and carrier partners.
Similarly along the lines of electric truck deployment, Google announced earlier this month that it was helping put an additional 25 electric trucks on the road through a partnership involving electric truck startup Nevoya and the Center for Green Market Activation, a shipper nonprofit looking to fund more zero-emission infrastructure.
The partnership with Google will accelerate the deployment of trucks in a key freight corridor between Dallas and Houston. Google will receive environmental certificates it can use to claim emissions reductions for the company’s sustainability goals.
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