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Courtesy of RMI.
By Laurie Stone

Mike Roeth has clocked thousands of miles pulling his solar-powered recreational vehicle around the country in his quest to make trucking cleaner and more efficient. For some it may seem strange that an effort to curb fuel takes fuel, since Roeth pulls his RV with a diesel-powered Ford F-250.

But for Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and trucking lead for RMI, it makes total sense. Roeth likes to live by the concept of “gemba,” a Japanese word meaning “the actual place.” He learned it in the 1990s while he was managing a plant for a manufacturer of engines and power systems. His plant was implementing a production system similar to Toyota’s, and Roeth was studying the Japanese automaker’s efforts when he discovered gemba.

Gemba means going to see the actual process and learning from those who do the work. Inside a Toyota factory, it means that management walks the floor to observe the manufacturing process up close. In Roeth’s world, it means that he is constantly out on the road, meeting with trucking companies and chatting with truck drivers. His goal is to understand the latest technologies for reducing emissions in a sector that is responsible for 24 percent of transportation’s greenhouse gas footprint.

Roeth grew up on a farm near Dayton, Ohio. He has been around tractors and trucks since he was a toddler. After graduating from Ohio State University with an engineering degree and working with different companies, he eventually became a vice president at Navistar, the company that owns the International brand of trucks and diesel engines. Roeth traveled a lot for work, and when he left Navistar, he decided he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Letty. He told her he would look for a job in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where they were living at the time.

Letty, however, knew her husband better than that. “That’s not you—you have to be traveling and out with people,” she told him. “Why don’t we buy a camper? I’ll go with you and see how we like it.” Roeth became an industry consultant, and they instantly fell in love with working on the road.

Getting the Efficiency Bug

Although Roeth loves working in the trucking industry, he was bothered by the lack of interest in efficiency technologies when fuel prices were low. “I was frustrated to find out that over the past 50 years, when fuel prices went up the industry wanted to lower costs and be more efficient, but when prices went down they didn’t,” he said. As a result, a lot of efficiency technologies were being discarded. “I knew that we need to and can do better with the emissions that move our goods.”

Around the same time that the Roeths were taking to the road, RMI hosted a workshop on efficient trucking with the goal of doubling the efficiency of the trucking sector. NACFE, an independent organization helping to drive efficiency in the trucking sector, was born out of that charrette, and Roeth was the perfect person to take it on.

“The thing I like about trucking is that it’s a small industry: only about half a million trucks are produced in a given year. It forces everyone to work together,” Roeth says. “Even though all the companies have divergent goals, and there’s a very diverse, complex market of trucking, it’s also incredibly collaborative.” That dynamic is ideal for Roeth, who excels at getting people together to work toward a common goal.

“Mike has an incredible resume of experience,” says Amanda Phillips, general manager of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sales at Meritor, a corporation that makes truck components. “He is always willing to share ideas and teach others. His energy and positive attitude are contagious.” From 2010 to 2016, Roeth nurtured NACFE from a small startup nonprofit to the leading organization on trucking efficiency. According to Phillips, “Mike’s entrepreneurial spirit and his work with NACFE have helped fleets better understand available technologies and the impact those advances can make in their fleet’s carbon footprint.”

During that same time, the Roeths got progressively bigger campers and started being gone more often. They eventually sold their house, got rid of most of their stuff, and became full-time RVers. They now have a 41-foot Jayco Eagle outfitted with a 1.4 kilowatt solar array to run their appliances.

The Roeths’ next step is to replace both their truck and camper with a motor home that pulls an electric car. Then, when parked at a campsite, they can drive their electric car for shorter trips. They hope to eventually get away from fossil fuels completely with an electric or hydrogen-powered truck that can pull an RV.

The Birth of Run on Less

In 2016, the NACFE team was trying to figure out how efficient a tractor trailer could be if it incorporated the best available efficiency technologies. The team thought the best way to do that was to track some of the most fuel-efficient trucks, driven by efficiency-focused drivers. And with that, Run on Less was born.

The first Run on Less event featured seven fleets, outfitted with different fuel-efficiency measures, in a cross-country demonstration. NACFE followed the fleets across the country and proved that fleets can improve their fuel efficiency by 25 percent if they adopt the right technologies.

The event was so successful that NACFE held a second Run on Less event in 2019. This one included 10 fleets, many very large, focused on regional haul. The second demonstration proved that the 800,000 trucks in North America could decrease their annual consumption of diesel from 8 billion gallons to 5.5 billion gallons, and eventually down to 1 billion gallons.

“Run on Less is just a gift that keeps on giving,” says Roeth. “It’s real, it’s human. We talk to truckers and the people buying trucks and running them, and then we share their stories and data. Do we like it because it’s fun or because the marketplace likes it? I think it’s a bit of both.”

To Roeth, the future of trucking looks bright. He’s most excited about electric and hydrogen trucks. “To think we can move freight with no emissions is incredible,” he says. “Trucking has done a lot. Diesel exhaust is cleaner now. I’m really proud of the industry. But it’s still carbon-based. I’m most excited about moving the industry to zero carbon.”

Roeth is getting an up-close glimpse at a carbon-free future for trucking in the third Run on Less demonstration, called Run on Less–Electric. This event, beginning September 2, features 13 electric trucks in a variety of real-world applications for companies including Frito-Lay, Anheuser-Busch, and Penske.

In addition to new technologies, Roeth is also excited about the changes in terms of diversity that he has seen over the 35 years he’s been involved in the industry. “The meetings I was in 30 years ago were all mostly white men. Now we have women and people of color involved from management to drivers,” he explains.

Living the Gemba Way

While many people took to the road during the COVID pandemic, the Roeths actually stayed put. Part of the joy of being on the road for the Roeths is not only attending industry events, but also going to museums, sporting events, and pubs, and meeting interesting people across the country.

Mike Roeth: Decarbonizing Trucking from the RoadWith COVID putting a stop to most of that, they felt they had no reason to go anywhere, so they hunkered down in Indiana. But it wasn’t the same. “During the pandemic I felt I was getting out of touch with trucking,” says Roeth. So he is now back on the road meeting with trucking companies, manufacturers, and drivers.

In the weeks leading up to Run on Less–Electric, he has been traveling around the country visiting most of the 13 companies involved, from Los Angeles to New York City. He has conducted dozens of interviews of fleet managers, company leaders, and truck drivers.

In this way, he learns firsthand about the benefits of electric trucks as well as any challenges the companies have faced. He then uses this knowledge to help increase the use of electric trucks in the industry. After one and a half years of COVID, he is back in his element: observing, listening, learning, and sharing ideas face-to-face. And that’s at the heart of how Roeth tries to live—the gemba way.

Learn about the companies and trucks involved in Run on Less – Electric and follow the Run at https://runonless.com.

 

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Hyundai recalls more than 145,000 EVs

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Hyundai recalls more than 145,000 EVs

Hyundai Motors is recalling 145,235 EVs and other “electrified” vehicles in the US, citing concerns about a loss of driving power, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday.

The NHTSA announced this morning that the recall affects selected IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 EVs, as well as certain luxury Genesis models, including the GV60, GV70, and G80 electrified variants, from the 2022-2025 model years, Reuters reported.

2025-Hyundai-IONIQ-5-prices
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 (Source: Hyundai)

It looks like the issue stems from “the integrated charging control units in these vehicles, which may become damaged and fail to charge the 12-volt battery. This malfunction could lead to a complete loss of drive power, posing safety risks for drivers,” the NHTSA stated.

If you’re an owner of one of these Hyundai models dating 2022-2025, stay tuned. Hyundai has not yet provided a timeline as to when affected vehicles will be repaired.

To make that happen, the company’s dealers will inspect and replace the charging unit and its fuse if necessary, NHTSA said. Free of charge, of course.

Importantly, no crashes, injuries, fatalities, or fires due to this issue have been reported in the US, Hyundai reported.


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Tesla brings ‘Actually Smart Summon’ to Europe and Middle East where FSD is limited

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Tesla brings 'Actually Smart Summon' to Europe and Middle East where FSD is limited

Tesla announced that ‘Actually Smart Summon,’ its autonomous driving feature that enables moving its vehicles without anyone inside over short distances, is now being launched in Europe and the Middle East.

The automaker’s Full Self-Driving suite of features has been limited in those markets due to regulations and Tesla’s focus on making them work in North America first.

Actually Smart Summon is the vision-only version of Tesla’s “smart summon” feature, which was released years ago on Tesla vehicles with ultrasonic sensors.

When Tesla transitioned away from ultrasonic sensors, Smart Summon was one of the missing features that Tesla had yet to adapt to the vision-only (cameras and neural nets) system.

CEO Elon Musk said that it would be coming in 2022, but it finally came only a few months ago, in 2024.

However, that’s only in North America where Tesla focuses its Full Self-Driving (FSD) development, the feature package that includes Actually Smart Summon, also referred to as ‘ASS’.

Most of Tesla’s other markets, including Europe, don’t have the same capabilities under the Full Self-Driving package. That’s partly due to regulations, but Tesla also focuses on making the features work on North American roads first.

Now, Tesla has announced that its Actually Smart Summon feature is launching in Europe and the Middle East:

The feature can only be used on private roads, like parking lots and driveways. Most people have used it to bring their vehicles parked in a large parking lot to them as they exit a store or restaurant. However, the vehicle moves quite slowly under the feature and the owner needs to keep an eye on it at all time and be ready to cancel the summon as Tesla doesn’t take any responsibility for accidents caused by using Actually Smart Summon., like all other FSD features.

Therefore, most people I know who have the feature, myself included, tried once or try to see or impress some friends who have never seen a car move without anyone inside and then stopped using it.

The feature’s main useful use-case is for people with extremely tight parking spots. It enables them to exit the vehicle before it is in its final parking spot and then move the car in and out remotely.

However, that has been the case for years with the regular Smart Summon, as you generally don’t need the vehicle to handle complex parking lots. You mostly need it to move a few feet forward or backward.

But a recent update has broken this feature for some people. We recently reported on a very unfortunate situation that resulted in a Tesla owner having to get out of his car through his trunk.

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Big auto learned its lesson? It’s begging Trump not to blow up emissions rules

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Big auto learned its lesson? It's begging Trump not to blow up emissions rules

US Automakers are planning to ask Mr. Trump to retain President Biden’s EPA exhaust rules, in the face of signs that Mr. Trump might try to reverse them. If the rules are reversed, it would cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of deaths per year.

Interestingly, this is the opposite of what big auto did the last time a reality TV show came to the White House – signaling that they have perhaps learned their lesson this time ’round.

First, some history.

In the middle of the 20th century, the effects of human activity on the atmosphere became readily apparent. Certain cities – with Los Angeles among the forefront – were choked by smog, and it was soon found out that vehicle pollution was the primary reason for this smog.

Since Los Angeles was one of the most smog-choked cities, California led the way on clean air regulation, creating the California Air Resources Board in 1967 (under then-Governor Ronald Reagan).

The federal government gave California special dispensation to set stricter regulations than the rest of the country, in recognition that it had a unique smog problem in its primary metropolis. California has retained this dispensation, in the form of a “waiver,” since then. And other states can follow California’s rules, but only if they copy all of the rules exactly.

Thus, there have been two separate sets of clean air regulation in this country since then – the federal rules, and then the “CARB states” which follow California’s rules.

In 2012 that finally changed, when President Obama’s EPA negotiated with California to finally harmonize these standards and also implement higher fuel efficiency nationwide. This would have been a huge boon for both industry and consumers, saving money and giving regulatory certainty to the auto industry.

But then, in 2016, the candidate who got the 2nd most votes in the presidential election was headed for the White House. And automakers responded by immediately lobbying to torpedo these standards, even before inauguration.

Now, you might think that asking a profoundly ignorant individual, who ended up staffing the EPA with bought-and-sold science deniers (huh, that would never happen again would it?), to change rules which had already been set through years of negotiation and lobbying was not a great idea. And you’d be right.

Not long after automakers had the dumb idea to ask an idiot to fix something that wasn’t broken, that idiot went and broke things further, fracturing the agreement between California and the federal government and ensuring less regulatory certainty for automakers.

After realizing their blunder (which they could have avoided by, y’know, thinking at all about it beforehand), big auto relented and asked the government to please not implement the rollbacks automakers had asked for. Some companies even forged their own agreement with California.

But it was too late, and we are now back in the era of disparate regulatory regimes – something which John Bozzella, head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (formerly called Global Automakers), keeps complaining about these days, despite having lobbied for exactly this in the first place.

The US EPA and California are still not fully harmonized, but both released recent new standards which do have somewhat similar targets. If a manufacturer builds towards one set of rules, they’ll probably not be too far off from meeting the other.

So in the end, we did get better emissions regulations and California has continued to push forward with clean air regulations, thus signaling a failure on the part of Mr. Trump to cause the long term harm to Americans that he and his oil industry solicitors so desperately seem to desire.

The most recent EPA standards, finalized in March (after being softened at the auto industry’s request), do not mandate any particular powertrain, but rather require steep emissions cuts – and EVs are the easiest way to achieve lower emissions.

Notably, Tesla lobbied in favor of making this last set of standards stronger, and they also lobbied against ruining the Obama/CA standards in 2016 – being one of very few automakers who were on the correct side of that discussion.

Despite that the President Biden EPA’s rules do not mandate any particular powertrain, Mr. Trump, in his usual ignorance, has said that he will end the nonexistent EV mandate. And now that he has received more votes than his opponent for the first time (after three tries, and despite committing treason in 2021 for which there is a clear legal remedy), it looks like the upcoming EPA might be directed to end these emissions cuts and fuel/health cost savings for Americans.

But in this instance, it sounds like the automakers might actually do the right thing for once, and ask the government not to do any rollbacks, and instead let them continue on with the plans without disruption from a convicted felon who seems determined to cede a US EV manufacturing boom back to China.

Detroit’s Big Three automakers – GM, Ford and Stellantis – are all reportedly trying to figure out how to ensure that these rules stay in place. The mentality is that constantly changing regulations are not beneficial for companies – particularly in the auto realm, where models take on the order of 7 years to plan and execute. Long-term planning is important for the hundreds of billions in manufacturing investment that EVs have attracted in the US during Biden’s EV push.

These attitudes are notable, given that this is not what automakers did in 2016/2017. That time, they compulsively pushed for fewer regulations, and now they are asking for regulations to remain in place.

It’s further notable that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company lobbied strongly in favor of emissions cuts and makes more use of the federal EV tax credit than any other company, is now allied with the very entity that’s looking to harm EVs. It seems that we have entered opposite world.

So it remains to be seen where we will go from here – on the one hand, doctorsnursesscientists, environmental groupsmany businessespeople who recognize that they have lungs which they would like to continue using, and so on, generally support the strongest regulation possible. Now, automakers have been added to the pile asking for strong regulations.

On the other hand, a former reality TV host – tagged along with by the CEO of the company that has sold more electric cars than any other – seem determined to kill electric cars, despite the harm that would cause to Americans’ pocketbooks and health insurance premiums. And that famously vindictive character may be even more spurred towards this harmful course of action after failing in his efforts the first time.

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