Despite Popular Opinion, Electric Semi Trucks Are Being Ordered?

We’ve shared multiple news items concerning electric trucks and whether or not they’ll work in today’s infrastructure. We’ve seen your comments and we hear you. Most of the truckers on our pages are passionately explaining that there just isn’t a way right now. They’re saying that there isn’t enough room at truck stops for parking and there aren’t enough pumps for the number of trucks on the road, let alone electric truck charging stations.

With the amount of you truckers we have as readers, we here at Diesel Army feel like you guys have a pretty good hold on what is going on out there on the road. The point is if you say there isn’t room, there isn’t interest, there isn’t even talks about electric trucks, there shouldn’t be, right? This week, there was a headline from Kenworth that really has us wondering.

“Kenworth’s Electric Truck Orders Have Tripled!”

Wait a minute. Something seems off here. We don’t have any interest in these trucks. Kenworth Truck Co. shared recently news of tremendous growth in the interest in their lineup of all-electric medium and heavy-duty trucks. In fact, in the last 90 days, their order number has tripled. At this rate, it is looking like fleets are taking advantage of the incentives for zero-emission vehicles.

What are the incentives? California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, which allow Class 8 trucks that can be classified as ZEVs to be eligible for an incentive up to $120,000 per vehicle. A “hey, buy this truck and we’ll pay you back!”, kind of deal.

Hank Johnson, Kenworth General Sales manager for Vocational and Medium-Duty trucks, says they (Kenworth) has already taken orders from every region of the United States, and most of Canada. Additionally, Johnson noted that Kenthworth has offered quotes to customers in 44 of the 50 states already.

“When we started this, we focused on the West Coast where the significant grant money resided. To our surprise, there had definitely been a lot more activity outside of those states than we originally anticipated.”- Hank Johnson, Kenworth Truck Co.

As discussed as of late, these electric trucks are projected to save 30-percent on maintenance and fuel costs over our beloved diesel trucks, but Johnson recognizes that the country may not be ready for that. “There are still some hurdles for commercial customers, especially in terms of charging infrastructure,” Johnson explained. “It literally could depend on the ground they sit on. Is your new facility all up to code for this? Is there excess capacity for you to add a charger?”

We are following this closely to see how they are going to integrate these trucks into areas that aren’t prepared for them. When governmental big-wigs stack on huge incentives to force fleet companies to go green, it’s going to be hard for them to say no. Speaking of, five other states have already hopped onto California’s Advanced Clean Truck regulations offering grants to get rid of “dirty diesel trucks”.

What do you think about all of this? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

 

About the author

Artie Maupin

Artie Maupin is from Southeast Missouri and has an extreme passion for anything diesel. He loves drag racing of all kinds, as well as sled pulling competitions.
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