Ohio Peterbilt last week became the first dealer in a 200-mile radius equipped to sell and service Peterbilt’s full line of EVs, spotlighting an emerging trend that may be lacking a solid framework.
The Broadview Heights location, roughly 30 minutes south of Cleveland, has earned its EV service certification, according to a Sept. 17 release from Ohio Peterbilt. Denton, Texas-based Peterbilt offers three EV models, ranging from Class 6 to Class 8.
Ohio Peterbilt, which has 10 locations across the state, is “fully prepared to assist companies both in-state and beyond,” Mike Crawford, vice president of Ohio Peterbilt Truck Group, stated in the release.
Other truck dealers are becoming EV service certified to accommodate manufacturers’ new products. In May, Volvo Trucks North America added 10 dealers to its EV certified network, which comprises 59 dealerships across the U.S. and Canada, according to a company release. Rush Truck Centers also services and sells EV trucks made by companies such as Peterbilt, Ford and Isuzu.
Apart from reduced carbon emissions, EVs can benefit the commercial trucking industry through lower maintenance costs, according to the Ohio Peterbilt release. Operating expenses for Class 8 trucks, including maintenance and repair, rose 0.8% to a record of $2.27 per mile in 2023, according to the American Transportation Research Institute. EV trucks can reduce fuel and maintenance costs by about 15%, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Inadequate infrastructure
Global electric sales increased 35% in 2023 to roughly 54,000, according to the International Energy Agency. Peterbilt completed its largest EV order in May, when it agreed to sell 150 units of the Model 579EV to Einride, a Swedish tech company that creates autonomous and electric technologies.
While EV trucks are becoming increasingly prominent, the market is outpacing the infrastructure development required to support it, Lydia Vieth, a research analyst focusing on electrification and autonomy at ACT Research, told Equipment Finance News.
“One major issue is infrastructure, which not only includes the charging stations themselves, but also utilities’ ability to meet those needs with new energy demands,” she said. “There’s also this huge issue of [upfront] cost.”
Twice the cost of diesel
A new electric Class 8 truck may cost upward of $400,000, compared to roughly $180,000 for a comparable diesel truck, according to a March report by the American Trucking Associations. Ohio Peterbilt did not provide a dollar amount for the EV models but said they can cost around twice as much as their diesel counterparts, a spokesperson told EFN.
“That does not include the charger, running power to your building, and other setups, which are additional costs on top of the truck itself,” he said.
U.S. Congress passed legislation in 2021 that allocated $7.5 billion to the National Electric Vehicle Formula Program to build approximately 500,000 EV chargers. However, that amount is inadequate partly because of the rapid emergence of EV trucks, ACT’s Vieth said.
“Unfortunately, the $7.5 billion toward charging infrastructure, especially when a small carve-out of that is for commercial vehicles, it’s not going to cover the whole country,” she said.
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