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Disruptor 50: Einride's mission for the future of EV trucking

The diesel-powered trucking industry moves a majority of freight, up to 70% in the U.S. alone. In California, trucks are the largest single source of vehicle-produced air pollution that “spew 70% of the state’s smog-forming gases and 80% of carcinogenic diesel pollutants,” according to the California Air Resources Board, making the trucking sector a key part of the emissions reduction challenge.

Swedish EV trucking startup Einride has been able to so far go toe-to-toe with Tesla and its Semi in attracting top corporate clients. Both have deals with PepsiCo — Einride in the U.K. and Tesla in California.

Einride also has global shipping giant Maersk, GE Appliances, AB InBev, Bridgestone, and Beyond Meat as customers.

While many of these deals are narrow to start with, Einride founder and CEO Robert Falck says the business case already exists today for many more freight players to make the transition from diesel to electric, up to half of the industry, according to Falck.

“In the $4 trillion freight mobility space, between 40%-50% should be electric driven by the business case today,” Falck said on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” in an interview on Thursday after his company ranked No. 13 on the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list. “That means a $2 trillion opportunity already today,” he added.

Einride is one of three companies focused on trucking to make the 2023 Disruptor 50 list — Convoy, founded by former Amazon executives, came in at No. 47, and Flock Freight, the only certified B Corp in the freight sector, came in at No. 20. Additional logistics companies to make the list focused on technology-based solutions in transportation and climate include Flexport and Lineage Logistics.

More coverage of the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50

The numbers on the EV cost equation, though, remain less than an exact science. A month ago, when appearing on CNBC to discuss the new deal with PepsiCo, Falk estimated that 30%-40% of the market could make the EV transition based on cost today. Not much has changed for the better in the math in just a month. In fact, diesel prices continue to trend lower, and haven’t been this low since before Russia invaded Ukraine, taking away a short-term advantage for the EV argument.

Diesel prices hit an all-time high last year in June of last year, and have fallen by 25% or more since then.

“In the near-term, of course, the business case for diesel becomes slightly better,” Falck said in the April interview.

But he stressed that the big brand examples of companies already signing on as clients prove the case. “They want to get the benefits of going sustainable but would not be willing to do it without a cost-competitive way,” he said on Thursday.

Diesel vs. EV economics

In many markets, independent of short-term movements in diesel prices, EV is cheaper for trucking, according to Falck, though it does depend on the cost of electricity. And as trucking hardware becomes cheaper and more widely available, the case for the EV transition will increase.

Part of the challenge is in the recharging, In September, the Department of Transportation approved EV-charging station plans for all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, covering about 75,000 miles of highways. States also have access to more than $1.5 billion in funds to help construct the chargers.

Einride’s business model, Falck stressed, and the business case for its customers, is not just about the truck manufacturing — it does not manufacture the trucks itself — but the turnkey solution that extends from the vehicle to the trailer design to the infrastructure (e.g. charging) to operations across the transportation system and its digital freight network solution.

In freight, unlike the consumer market, “it’s not about range, it’s about how to secure the business case,” he said.

Its trucks in the Class 8 tractor-trailer niche have a range of 400 miles.  

Swedish electric vehicle maker Einride will supply two of its heavy-duty trucks to PepsiCo as part of an expansion into the U.K.

Einride

Independent research does support the idea of more freight going EV. Nonprofit newsgroup Cal Matters found that the total cost of buying and operating an electric semi-truck could be anywhere from $765,000 to $1.1 million, while a gas or diesel truck ranges from $919,000 to $1.2 million.

Interest in the state of California is high because the California Air Resources Board is requiring truck manufacturers to begin phasing in available heavy-duty EV technology by 2024. But in the state, which is a leader in climate technology and climate regulation — and one of the world’s largest economies — for now at least, the larger focus is on short-haul trucking.

California has set the goal of all zero-emission short-haul drayage fleets — for operations in and nearby ports — by 2035. Schneider, a truckload, intermodal and logistics service, announced its battery-electric truck (BEV) fleet back in 2021, and the first BEV arrived at a Southern California port this year.

We’re going to be operating those in and out of railheads for intermodal customers, and so we’ll start with five taking this month and will be up to about that hundred number by the time we get through the calendar year,” Schneider CEO Mark Rourke said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in February.

Autonomous big rigs

But bigger trucks are critical for climate goals. Medium and heavy trucks make up only about 4% of vehicles in the U.S., but because of their larger size and greater travel distances, the vehicles consume more than 25% of total highway fuel and represent nearly 30% of highway carbon emissions, according to the Department of Energy.

While Einride is making bold calls about the EV transition today, Falck is cautious on one aspect of the technology that gets a lot of attention: autonomous trucking. He said Einride does see the short-haul market being a better fit today for the autonomous transition, and described the process of moving to autonomous trucks as “gradual.”

For most goods being moved by autonomous electric vehicles today, it is inside warehouses and logistics centers. “We’ve taken the same approach,” he said. “We start with manual electric and gradually introduce more and more autonomy. We’re already doing autonomous for clients, but not everywhere. We start with the simple applications, fenced-off areas … low speeds.”

“We gradually grow into this,” Falck said. “This is not just about making a truck autonomous, it’s changing the entire transport system.”

That will be measured in decades, in his option. “In 25 years, we will predominantly be electric and autonomous,” Falck said.

CNBC’s Kaitlin Balasaygun contributed reporting.

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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