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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Minnesota just locked in a dozen new DC fast charging station sites along Interstates 90 and 94, defying Donald Trump’s suspension of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced the 12 new sites this week, backed by nearly $10 million in combined federal and state funding. About $4.5 million comes from the NEVI program, part of the Biden administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Another $4.7 million will come directly from the state.

This is Minnesota’s second round of NEVI funding; the state announced the first NEVI funding round in July 2024. And while the Trump administration recently shut down the NEVI program nationwide, MnDOT says it’s pushing forward with its EV charging buildout.

“While we were disappointed to learn the Trump administration has chosen to suspend this program, this second round of grants demonstrates we are honoring our commitments and continue to evaluate all options for continuing this important work,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger.

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The 12 new charging sites will be located at:

• Energy Hunters Minnesota – Barnesville
• Francis Energy Charging – Fergus Falls
• Love’s Travel Stops – Rockville
• Kwik Trip – Lake Elmo
• Francis Energy Charging – Luverne
• Kwik Trip – Worthington
• Francis Energy Charging – Jackson
• Francis Energy Charging – Blue Earth
• Kwik Trip – Albert Lea
• Kwik Trip – Austin
• Kwik Trip – Stewartville
• Love’s Travel Stops – St. Charles

All 12 stations are being placed along federally designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. That means each location is within a mile of an interstate exit and spaced no more than 50 miles apart. They’ll each have at least four 150 kW DC fast chargers that run simultaneously, and they’ll be open to the public 24/7 without an entrance fee and be sited next to well-lit amenities such as restrooms, food, and beverages.

This will bring Minnesota’s NEVI-funded charging station sites to 24. MnDOT says it’s continuing to explore ways to expand the state’s EV infrastructure.

Read more: US DC fast charging network surges past 55K ports – and it’s getting more reliable

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Tesla is the only EV brand with a net negative brand perception, according to the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report – and much of the negative shift has happened in the last 6 months.

The Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report (EVIR) surveyed 8,000 US consumers to ask them questions about electric vehicle purchasing decisions, both asking about brands and finding out what they value in an EV purchase.

The most notable result of the survey is that consumers had the most negative view of Tesla – and in fact, Tesla is the only brand in the survey which received a net negative brand image.

When asked whether they have a positive or negative view of Tesla, 32% said they have a “very” or “somewhat” positive view combined, but 39% said they have a “very” or “somewhat” negative view.

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This means Tesla has a -7% net score, behind even VinFast, which has a 0% net score (mostly because most surveyed hadn’t heard of the Vietnamese brand).

As for other brands, ironically, the top-ranked EV brand was Honda, a company that only sells one full BEV in the US, the Prologue (which people like and is selling great), which it didn’t even make itself, but rather made it in partnership with GM. Chevrolet scored well also, third place overall in brand perception.

The other EV startups (Lucid, Rivian, Polestar) did tend towards the bottom of the table, but this was largely because they had comparatively lower brand awareness, and thus their net positive numbers could not have been much higher (Lucid, for example, had 9% positive and 4% negative scores). Tesla, however, had both extremely high brand awareness and negative brand association. (But you have heard of me…)

Tesla’s score gets even worse when “view intensity” is taken into account, with people 13 points more likely to have a “very negative” view than a “very positive” one.

This negative brand perception persisted through all income brackets, regions and ages, with Tesla holding last place in each category.

In every category save one, when asked whether they would consider purchasing a Tesla, the most common answer was “would never consider.”

Tesla also ranked last in a comparison of various home EV charger brands and home battery brands, with more consumers saying they “would never consider” it.

Similar numbers appeared in a question about “brand trust,” where Tesla again had negative net trust, and a much higher “distrust a lot” score than its “trust a lot” score.

Tesla performed slightly better in perceptions of safety (second last) and family-friendliness (fourth from last), but did well in perceptions of luxury, holding fifth place overall out of eighteen brands.

According to this survey, the drop in Tesla brand perception has been quite recent. EVIR asked how views of Tesla had changed over the last 6 months. 46% said their opinion hadn’t changed, but a total of 38% of people had a “more” or “much more” negative perception, versus 16% who had a “more” or “much more” positive perception.

This, again, becomes more of a severe difference when you look at the most intense answers: 27% had a “much more negative” perception, while only 6% had a “much more positive” perception – a 4.5x difference.

Overall, over the last 6 months, there was only a +1% net change in consumers positive perceptions of EVs as a whole, so this drastic recent change was limited to Tesla, not other brands.

There was one piece of good news for Tesla, though: when asked which sort of public charging equipment consumers would most prefer, Tesla came out on top… except it also came out on top of the list that consumers would least prefer.

EVIR also asked what the factors driving consumers’ interest or disinterest in purchasing an EV.

Consumers recognized the benefits of EVs, with the top factors driving EV interest being gas savings, environment/climate change, and the ability to charge at home. Consumers who were already considering buying an EV found these to be more important factors than consumers who said they aren’t thinking about an EV yet.

Unfortunately, consumers also fell victim to the myths they’ve long been told about EVs. We’ve seen for a long time that consumers claim that range is one of their main concerns with EVs, despite that there are plenty of EVs available with way more range than you actually need.

In the EVIR, consumers ranked “length of range on a battery charge” as their top concern, even though EVs on average have enough range for a full week worth of driving from the average driver.

The second and fourth concerns, “availability of charging stations” and “I couldn’t charge at my residence” are much more pertinent. While it’s common for non-EV drivers not to recognize how many chargers are available, this is an area where the EV industry could definitely improve (I’ve long been on record saying that charger availability, especially for apartment dwellers and street parkers, is the only real problem with EVs – and that solving these problems will help people recognize that giant range numbers are not as necessary as they think).

Happily, the NACS transition will help to solve a lot of these problems, along with the existence of new well-funded charging networks like IONNA.

You can check out the full Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report here.

Electrek’s Take

As we’ve been warning people about for quite some time now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing his best to completely destroy Tesla’s brand.

As an EV publication, we have the same mission as Tesla – to advance sustainable transport. In order for that to happen, we obviously want the (formerly) largest EV company in the world to do its job the best it can.

The problem is, Musk doesn’t have that mission, and has been doing his best over the last year(s) to ruin Tesla’s brand perception with increasingly idiotic decisions, both in terms of his public advocacy and his work within Tesla.

Musk’s high-profile political advocacy, which has included support for German neo-Nazis and agreeing with a defense of Hitler’s actions in the Holocaust, among many other white supremacist statements, has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away.

This report shows the effect of the constant drumbeat of bad Tesla business moves and horrendous public behavior by the company’s CEO. The company’s employees, for the most part, are still working to try to make good electric vehicles, but Musk is spending the money he made from selling EVs to try to ruin EVs – something that the company itself had to call him out on in its quarterly report (and which the formerly-more-lucid Musk would have opposed just a few years ago before he forgot how climate change works).

Unfortunately, Tesla’s board seems content to destroy the company, and its shareholders do too, as they voted again last year to give Musk $55 billion in exchange for his bad leadership, an award that is greater than the total amount of profits Tesla has made over its entire lifetime. That pay package was stopped by a court for violating corporate law.

We’re not sure what’s going to many any of them wake up to Musk’s destruction of the company, but this report is just one more data point showing how severe the situation has gotten.

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