Along with all the other chaos that has spread across the globe as a result of the Trump administration and its at times disorderly conduct, another potential victim of the chaos could be zero emission trucks.
Clean emission freee electric trucks are face a pretty rough ride in America as the Trump administration sets out to tear apart the Biden administration incentives and penalties it put in place to boost the zero emission transport industry. However as anyone who has been behind an semi trailer will understand, slow and steady is often big trucks do best.
As tax breaks, grants and pollution standards disappear, electric truck manufacturers are apparently indicating they are likely continue gaining market share, just at a slower speed.
One analyst quoted in US media this week said that looking 20 years down the track he believes the energy transition will still happen.
Trump seems all too pleased with himself in making fun of zero emission trucks, just as some Australian politicians like Scott Morrison also did. Trump’s attitude is of course in addition to his well-known animosity toward electric cars, despite his alliance with Tesla boss Elon Musk.
The second Trump administration is attempting to remove most of the financial incentives and environmental regulations that president Joe Biden put in place during his administration, which they put together to encourage and foster the transition to cleaner vehicles.
It has become clear that the US Congress is talking about killing the Biden established tax credits for building and buying new trucks .
Exhaust emissions standards, which have been designed to promote electric trucks rumoured to be likely undone by the US Environmental Protection Agency plans to while regulations in the most populous state of California that aim to phase out diesel-powered trucks are under threat as Republican congressional leaders try to repeal them, while some states that adopted the rules are rumoured to also be looking to delay the implementation of such rules
Even trucks already sold and having been on US roads are under threat with the EPA program designed to help jump-start the market for used electric trucks is stuck in limbo as EPA administrator Lee Zeldin attempts to retreive $US20 billion in climate grants that it had already awarded.
There is a considerable degree of doom gathering in the electric truck industry in America because along with all the looming tax considerations, the fact is that electric trucks have had a so far slow take up, due to the fact that battery electric trucks cost more than twice as much as diesel powered ones.
Rustam Kocher., a former Daimler trucks North America executive who now works on a truck charging program for a utility company based in Oregon said this week that when there is a national government that is actively working against the industry, it is always going to make it difficult.
Despite all this the truck industry still has a lot of reasons to cut its emissions.
As analysts in the USA have pointed out, the fact is, truck manufacturing is an even more international business than car manufacturing, particularly in America where three of the top four truck makers are owned by major European based companies, while the fourth has significant holdings in Europe in its own right.
Daimler controls Freightliner and Western Star brands in America, while Volvo markets it own brand plus the famous Mack brand while Volkswagen controlled Traton owns International Navistar. To add to that the Paccar Group is one of Europe’s leading truck makers thanks to its acquisition of DAF a couple of decades back.
All of that means the major truck companies have to respond in Europe and other nations, which are still serious about reducing emissions and curbing climate change.
The other positive pressure in the US for cleaner trucks is likely to come from major fleet operators with global footprints as prt of their corporate governance and efficiency positions. Companies such as soft drink and snack food giant, PepsiCo, along with Swedish furniture and homewares retailer Ikea have also promised to cut their emissions to aid in stabilising climate change and reducing pollution from their operations and they have signalled that they are willing to pay for it.
Along with this, reports are that the entry price price for electric trucks has been dropping and the premium over diesel has also started to reduce.
Truck operators typically focus on a total cost of running business model for the trucks they operate and also retain trucks for longer periods of time recording high lifetime mileages as a result. With a whole of life costing including fuel costs as well as maintenance and repairs appearing to be much lower for electric trucks some operators are taking the plunge despite the gathering doom.
Some US analysts are starting to believe that electric trucks are now much closer to cost parity with diesel rigs over a typical service life, without taking into consideration any government subsidies and so are slowly starting to bit the bullet and invest in the zero emission model.
Once the truck industry hits a financial tipping point and battery power makes sense money wise, then analysts say it will start to become a simple business decision and the switch will be on no matter what Mr Trump decides..
