Large NYC container port buys fleet of electric yard tractors

New York City’s Red Hook Terminals container yard is committing to renewable power for its yard tractors, ordering 10 electric vehicles at a time when pressure is growing in the industry to transition away from the heavy pollution of diesel-powered trucks.

Brooklyn-based Red Hook on Thursday announced a deal to purchase 10 BYD 8Y all-electric yard tractors from BYD’s local truck dealer, Hudson County Motors. When they are deployed at Red Hook’s intermodal yard just across the Hudson River in Port Newark, New Jersey, the fleet will become the largest collection of heavy-duty electric trucks operating on the U.S. East Coast, the company said.

Red Hook will use the vehicles for its work as an intermodal operator that also offers stevedoring and cross-harbor barge service, with two separate facilities within the Port of New York and New Jersey complex.

The move creates the first major heavy-duty battery electric truck deployment in the eastern U.S., according to Climate Change Mitigation Technologies LLC (CCMT), a project manager of medium and heavy-duty commercial fleet truck electrification projects that has teamed for the job with Hudson County Motors. “It’s our duty as good neighbors to help reduce emissions in the communities we work in” Michael Stamatis, president of Red Hook Terminals, said in a release. “Together with Hudson County Motors and BYD we’ll be putting our first zero-emission fleet to work right here in Port Newark.”

Red Hook’s purchase comes as California recently announced a plan to make zero-emission trucks and vans mandatory by 2045. The June 25 decision by California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) requires truck manufacturers to transition from diesel trucks and vans to electric zero-emission trucks beginning in 2024, and means that by 2045, every new truck sold in California will be zero-emission.

Due to California’s economic heft, that policy could soon spread to other regions, with 15 other states already considering similar policies. In July, those states agreed to collaborate to accelerate the market for electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including large pickup trucks and vans, delivery trucks, box trucks, school and transit buses, and long-haul delivery trucks. The goal is to ensure that 100% of all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales be zero emission vehicles by 2050 with an interim target of 30% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2030.

“For decades, while the automobile has grown cleaner and more efficient, the other half of our transportation system has barely moved the needle on clean air,” CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said in a release. “Diesel vehicles are the workhorses of the economy, and we need them to be part of the solution to persistent pockets of dirty air in some of our most disadvantaged communities. Now is the time – the technology is here and so is the need for investment.”

California takes bold step to reduce diesel truck pollution. A first of its kind requirement for #zeroemission trucks in the state will help communities hardest hit by #airpollution

?? https://t.co/ykst9l0Vi6#cleantrucks pic.twitter.com/C7BXqAF5xk

— CARB (@AirResources) June 25, 2020