They may not purr like a well-tuned diesel, but Pet Valu has added two brand-new, whisper-quiet Volvo VNR Electric semi trucks to its growing logistics fleet as part of the company’s ongoing effort to transform its supply chain into one that’s more efficient, and more sustainable.

Pet Valu is one of Canada’s leading specialty retailers, offering a wide variety of pet food, toys, and and other fur-and-feather friendly supplies to keep pets healthy and happy. Part of the company’s efforts to deliver on that happy/healthy promise is in reducing ground-level air pollution, and these new, zero-tailpipe emission electric semi trucks will help Pet Valu achieve that vision.

“At Pet Valu, we are committed to continuously improving how we serve devoted pet lovers and their pets,” explains Nico Weidel, chief supply chain officer, Pet Valu. “Each electric delivery truck represents an opportunity to avoid consuming over 25,000 liters of diesel fuel or over 62 tonnes of CO2 (emissions) per year. We’re excited to explore how these trucks perform and assess the potential for further electrification of our delivery fleet in the future.”

Pet Valu spec’ed out its new Class 8 Volvo VNR Electric day cab trucks with the 565 kWh six-battery pack configuration, offering route drivers an operating range of up to 442 kilometers (about 275 miles) per charge. And, while Volvo’s VNRs are capable of ultra-fast charging, these trucks will power up overnight overnight at the company’s Surrey distribution center an a newly installed 120 kW charger.

In addition to deploying the trucks, the Volvo Trucks team worked closely with Pet Valu to identify and secure additional funding opportunities to help offset the high up-front cost of the battery-electric semis, including federal (Canadian) and provincial incentive programs Clean BC – Go Electric and iMHZEV (incentives for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles).

“We are excited to see Pet Valu taking the initiative in the Canadian pet supply industry by adopting Volvo’s VNR Electric trucks,” says Matthew Blackman, managing director for Canada, Volvo Trucks North America. “As they venture into sustainable transportation, this effort is expected to not only strengthen their supply chain but also help support a healthier planet, one ‘purr-fectly’ quiet kilometer at a time.”

And, yes: we made the same joke. (I stand by it.)

Electrek’s Take

Pet Valu joins a growing list of companies – and they’re already adding to the tally of tens of millions of all-electric, zero emission miles driven by Volvo customers. By the time Volvo rolls out its next-generation VNL and FH electric semis later this year, they will represent company’s third generation of Class 8 EVs, and will be backed by more than 100,000,000 miles of real-world data collected by thousands of trucks across dozens of companies.

Can anyone catch up?

SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Trucks.

Consulting firm TRC has made a name for itself in the clean trucking space both for managing the ACT Expo and helping commercial fleets navigate the increasingly complex world of ZEV incentives. This week, the company reached a major milestone: $2 billion in funding!

Over the last few years, GNA (which was acquired by TRC in 2023) has developed and submitted more than 650 successful grant applications and funding requests on behalf of its clients, helping them to achieve their environmental and sustainability goals while saving money on total cost of ownership in the process.

“We feel privileged to assist forward-thinking companies to achieve their goals to develop and demonstrate the commercial use of some of the most cutting-edge and advanced technologies in the marketplace today,” said Erik Neandross, President, Clean Transportation Solutions at TRC. “Managing multi-million-dollar grant applications can be daunting, but our team’s tenacity and knowledge ensures that our clients will successfully achieve their objectives while they remain focused on their core business activities.”

Noteworthy projects that received funding through TRC’s support include:

• Over $40 million for the JETSI Project, which deployed 100 zero-emission Class 8 trucks across Southern California to operationalize zero-emission freight movement at scale.
• $44 million for Volvo LIGHTS, an initiative that implemented a blueprint for the complete ecosystem needed to successfully deploy commercial battery-electric trucks.
• $95 million for the Nevada Gold Mines 200 MW Solar Project, accelerating the decarbonization of mining operations in Northern Nevada.
• $15.4 million for the Frito-Lay Zero and Near Zero Emission Freight Facility (ZANZEFF) Project in Modesto, CA, to deploy an array of commercially available and pre-commercial ZE and NZE technologies as well as renewable power generation and energy storage.
• $5 million for Mariposa County Resource Conservation District to develop, demonstrate and deploy environmentally and economically sustainable biomass-to-energy systems for the forest and food waste sectors.
• $6.5 million for Foster Farms for projects to modify parking yards with EV charging parking stalls and implement emissions-reducing mechanical upgrades at five Foster Farms plants.
• $4.4 million for Otter Tail Power Company to enhance grid resiliency with next-generation technology.

TRC’s efforts have helped clients to tap funding from sources such as Volkswagen Settlement Funds, Federal Highway Administration, DOE, South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), California Air Resources Board (CARB), California Energy Commission (CEC), Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs, and others.

Electrek’s Take

Joe Annotti is a senior executive dedicated to clean transportation and energy independence initiatives at TRC, and has been a great guest on several of my podcasts – most recently Quick Charge on the Electrek Daily channel. You can check out that episode, above, then let us know what you think of TRC’s fleet decarbonization efforts in the comments.

SOURCE | IMAGES: TRC; photo by the author.

The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore has announced a first for the contemporary American maritime industry: a battery-electric rail car mover that can organize the rail yard without dirtying up the air around it.

Built by the Marmon Rail’s Italian Zephir division, the LOK 16.150E model rail car mover features an 80-volt rechargeable battery pack sending current to a pair of 40 kW (about 50 hp) high-torque brushless motors. That may not sound like a lot in a world of 650 hp Kias and 1000 hp Teslas, but it’s enough to generate a drawbar pull (read: towing force) of more than 39,000 lbs. … all while generating zero tailpipe emissions.

“At this terminal, the asset will be used to help with intermodal cargo exchange,” said Matt Stahl, Mid-Atlantic terminal general manager for global shipping gurus Wallenius Wilhelmsen, who operate the Zephir. “We can do it with our own asset, without any assistance.”

Wallenius Wilhelmsen is using the Zephir to move rail cars loaded with heavy lift, farm and construction equipment, and military cargo within the Dundalk Marine Terminal, and claims it will remove over 180 tons of harmful carbon emissions per year.

You can check out the promotional video released by the Port of Baltimore to celebrate the Zephir’s deployment, below, then let us know what you think in the comments.

Electrek’s Take

Historically-conscious readers already know that the key word in that first paragraph is contemporary, because the Zephir is very much a case of “what’s old is new again,” according to Freightwaves’ Stuart Chirls. Chirls explains that the Zephir, “harks back [sic] to battery-powered railcar movers built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1912, rubber-tired ‘locomotives’ used to switch freight cars around the narrow streets of the Baltimore waterfront on track curvature too tight for standard motive power.”

If you want to learn more about the Pennsylvania Railroads’ 100-year lead on electric rail car switcher technology, check out this article on Railfan, which includes the photos below plus a whole lot more.

Don’t miss: they had license plates!

Rubber Tired Switchers

SOURCES | IMAGES: Port of Baltimore, via Freightwaves, Railfan.