Electric Truck Charging: Can Infrastructure Keep Pace with Demand?

Boosted by billions of dollars for electrification infrastructure, is the rapidly advancing market for battery-powered commercial trucks. Which will soon learn whether there is enough juice to begin scaling a transformation from diesel to zero tailpipe emission electric transport.

Four areas are critical to trucking electrification: the trucks, batteries, chargers and ample electric power. The latter of which is the biggest unknown.

The Federal Jobs Act included $2.5 billion for electric infrastructure. And the California Energy Commission (CEC) set aside $50 million. Money for U.S. development of battery cells and other key components does not have a specific limit for commercial vehicles.

As a result, big fleets with big bucks can make their way to adopting battery-electric trucks by taking advantage of being first. To date they have used up most of the grant money available through California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP). So large fleets have other levers to pull for public help.