Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2023 - 2

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
Bill Visnic
Editorial Director
Bill.Visnic@sae.org
A diversified path for sustainable fleets
More than 12,000 people attended the
2023 Advanced Clean Transportation
(ACT) Expo in Anaheim, Calif., in May.
Attendees heard a multitude of viewpoints
offered by experts from commercial-vehicle
manufacturers and suppliers,
energy providers, government agencies
and other stakeholders. While those
views differed on technology and timing,
a clear point of consensus was that adoption
of cleaner solutions must accelerate
- be they renewable fuels or fuel cells,
battery-electric vehicles or hybrids.
As Drew Cullen, SVP of Fuels and
Facility Services at Penske Transportation
Solutions, said during a session highlighting
the 2023 State of Sustainable Fleets
report: " Nobody is waking up in the
morning trying to figure out 'How do I
pollute more today?' They're all trying to
do the right thing. " Penske, Shell and
Daimler Truck North America served as
title sponsors of this year's report, with
Dana a supporting sponsor.
The CEO of clean-technology consultant
Gladstein, Neandross & Associates
(GNA), Erik Neandross, presented the
key findings of GNA's fourth annual report,
which was informed by input from
225 fleet operators and decision-makers,
along with secondary data.
" Regulations are out there pushing to
make diesel engines much cleaner, but
also likely more expensive and more
complicated, " Neandross said. Increased
warranty requirements add to the expense.
" To provide that warranty coverage
to 600,000 miles, that's going to
be expensive, " he said. " The price tag
on these rules could easily add $30,000
to the cost of the new diesel tractor,
plus or minus 25-30%. "
The report states that most heavyduty
OEMs will join Daimler and
Navistar with announcements that portend
the sunset of the diesel era. " We
believe that 2027 could very well be the
last of the major diesel-engine development
programs that we see, " Neandross
said. While diesel vehicles will continue
to lead for many years, he added, manufacturers
increasingly will shift invest2
June 2023
ments into clean-drivetrain development
and production.
Unprecedented incentives also are
driving interest in clean-fleet technologies
and fuels. Funding is expected to
average $32 billion annually for the next
four to five years, compared to previous
averages of around $3 billion per year.
Domestic production of renewable
diesel (RD) doubled in 2022, according
to the report, from 600 million gallons
in the first 10 months of 2021 to 1.2 billion
gallons during the same period in
2022. Private-sector fleets in the survey
increased RD use by nearly 10% compared
to 2021. Renewable natural gas
reportedly has replaced fossil-based
CNG for fleets in California for the second
year in a row, and growth is strong
nationally, the authors stated.
Interest in BEVs continues to increase
among fleets of all types, though on average
they comprise only 4% of a fleet's
population; six fleets reported a 10% or
higher penetration rate. Every fleet with
more than 100,000 vehicles that responded
to the survey now is using
BEVs, with 78% of fleets with 10,000100,000
vehicles and 84% with 1,00010,000
vehicles reporting BEV use.
Eighty-five percent of yard truck fleets
reported using BEVs, followed by 73% of
fleets for logistics-urban/last mile and
72% for logistics-regional haul under 250
miles (400 km) per day.
Manufacturers and fleets reported fewer
heavy-duty FCEV orders in 2022 vs.
2021 (fewer than 100 vs. 140), but commercial
demonstrations continue to ramp
up. The analysis suggests that hydrogen
fuel-production projects announced in
2022 will add more than 900 metric tons
per day of H2
capacity by 2023, with
" most projects " planning to leverage renewable
feedstocks, the report states.
Are there too many clean-tech options?
Ari Silkey, general manager of
North America Surface Transportation at
Amazon, replied, " I'd love more options. "
Until infrastructure, scalability and costs
help whittle the field, options will abound.
Ryan Gehm, Editor-in-Chief
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
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Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2023

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