Freight fleets continued clean vehicle rollouts despite pandemic, report shows

Despite the stresses of the Covid pandemic on logistics operations worldwide, freight fleet operators have continued to pursue their targets of implementing new clean vehicle technologies to improve both environmental and business benefits, a new report says.

The analysis comes from California-based clean technology consulting firm Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), which recently updated its annual State of Sustainable Fleets report with a 2021 Market and Trends Brief. The report was produced with support from the report's title sponsors Daimler Trucks North America, Penske Transportation Solutions, and Shell Oil Company, and supporting sponsors Cummins, Inc., DTE Energy, and Geotab.

“Even in an extreme outlier year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the growth of clean technologies continued to rapidly accelerate, with an increase in fleet orders and deliveries for natural gas and battery-electric vehicles as well as for lower carbon renewable fuels,” the brief says.

More specifically, fleet operators are now applying a mixture of clean technologies with incumbent fuel and efficiency measures, enabling them to realize immediate emission reductions while satisfying sustainability goals both from their own corporate commitments and consumer demands, the report said.

According to the report, companies are following five strategies in pursuit of those goals:

• fleets report superior total cost of ownership and fuel costs savings when operating on the mature technologies of compressed natural gas in the refuse, transit, and dedicated heavy-duty sectors, while using propane in the school, paratransit, and urban delivery sectors.
• battery-electric vehicles are poised to become a leading clean fleet technology in three to five years. Commitments by several large fleets will require vehicle deployments in the tens of thousands per year. While vehicle costs remain high for this developing technology, and OEMs are just beginning to enter serial production, investment to build this market is already enormous and growing.
• fuel producers and vehicle makers continued investing hundreds of millions globally adding to the billions of dollars already committed to build a foundation for fuel cells, doubling the number of models coming to market, mostly for transit and Class 8 tractors.
• two powerful drivers—policy mandates and ambitious sustainability goals—are creating demand for all clean technologies and will continue to drive growth. 
• sustainability benefits, including the emissions reduction potential of vehicles and fuel, are improving for nearly all existing clean vehicle technologies, including efficiency, renewable fuels, and cleaner vehicles. Sustainability benefits remain a top motivator for fleets.

Finally, the report concluded that the clean vehicle growth trend is also on track to continue into the future, with 83% of surveyed early adopter fleets indicating they plan to increase their use of such technologies in the next five years. The survey also showed that many clean vehicle technologies and fuels are providing both economic and environmental sustainability benefits when each fuel and technology is best matched to the right application and duty cycle.

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— Penske Transportation Solutions (@PenskeNews) June 1, 2021