ACT Expo 2025 – one step forward, two steps back for clean trucking [part 1]

ACT Expo is North America’s premier clean truck and transport trade show – and for 2025 it was bigger than ever, with more exhibitors and more, more capable battery electric vehicles than ever. The downsides? NACFE have scored with their “messy middle” messaging, and the return of “clean diesel” talking points.

The re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States has thrown the steady pace of electric fleet adoption – along with just about every thing else – into a state of confusion and disarray. Into that chaos, NACFE (the North American Council for Freight Efficiency) has thrown a positively progress-shattering bromide that may as well have been designed to distract attention from the proliferation of practical medium- and heavy-duty EVs, the rapid expansion of a comprehensive DC fast charging network, and the rapidly decreasing delta between the up-front costs of conventional diesel and battery electric offerings.

I’m talking about the phrase, “the messy middle,” which posits that, while we can all agree that electric vehicles and battery technology are the future, “we’re not quite there, yet.” The result is a series of observations that, while very timely in 2019, seem to disingenuously portray EVs as new technology today, while claiming that there are unanswered questions regarding battery costs and component longevity.

Never mind that next year will mark the (checks notes) twenty-ninth year of Toyota Prius production, and the thirtieth anniversary of the production launch of GM’s EV1, or that Volvo is on its third generation of battery electric semi, or that dozens of EV fleets have logged hundreds of millions of all-electric miles on their vehicles – never mind, in other words, that BEVs are in production now, ready now, in customer hands now, delivering on the promise of reduced TCO now … an EV may not be suitable for some fleets – and NACFE’s “messy middle” messaging is going to give a lot of fleets an excuse to buy one more round diesel-engined semi trucks to fill up with more diesel from Shell their favorite truck stops.

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All that said, it’s catchy. Outside of NACFE’s booth or Shell’s panels I’ve heard the phrase “messy middle” repeated sincerely at least a dozen times over the last three days, and I have to admit that the alliterative lure of that particular little ear worm that, regardless of the sincerity of NACFE’s intent, is going to set the pace of EV adoption back at least the length of one Presidential term (give or take 100 days).

Moving on …

There was plenty of good stuff

Despite my ranting and raving against the whole “messy middle” messaging, there was an incredible amount of awesome, zero-emission, battery-powered goodness at this year’s ACT Expo. Too much, in fact, to jam into a single article (unless y’all like 5,000 word articles).

As such, I won’t even try.

Instead, I’ll use this post to give you a sneak peek at some of the stories I’ll be posting in the coming days, bringing you fully up to speed with all the latest and greatest new EVs, EREVs, and HFCEVs that commercial fleet buyers can place an order for today, and start putting the messy middle (and their backwards-looking competitors) behind them. So, check out the short list, below, then watch this space to see the links go live.

ACT 2025 News

• Zenobe arrives in North America
• Honda wants to sell you a fuel cell
• Hyundai opens up about its hydrogen semi
• ABB has figured out this whole charging deal
• Windrose gets real, and Wen Han signs my truck
• Volvo has the best deal going for commercial EVs
• New Mack electric trucks are coming, and one is already here
• The new autonomous terminal tractor from Kalmar is a next-level EV

Original content from Electrek; special thanks to ACT Expo.

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