Electrifying Trucking Would Require a Major Chunk of the US Power Grid: ATRI

by Colin Campbell (Transport Dive) Shifting all vehicles to battery electric vehicles would demand more than 40% of the country’s electricity production, the American Transportation Research Institute said in a report. -- Electrifying long-haul truck runs alone on today’s roadways would require about a tenth of the nation’s power generation, according to the American Transportation Research Institute.

Shifting all U.S. vehicles to battery electric would demand more than 40% of the country’s electricity production, ATRI said in a report Tuesday. Installing charging equipment at truck parking stops across the U.S. could cost upwards of $35 billion, based on a per-unit cost of $112,000.

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Near-term, discrete applications exist for BEV trucks, ATRI reported. It said the vehicles available today are suited for local and regional operations, using trucks for short trips in which they return to terminals for nightly charging.

But the nonprofit research group concluded “a completely new charging infrastructure is critical” for increased adoption, including on long-haul routes.

The high cost of BEV trucks is another issue, the report acknowledged. OEMs and others in the vehicle supply chain must produce BEV trucks that meet fleets’ requirements, including the limits of carriers’ balance sheets, ATRI said.

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ATRI’s report also delved into the raw material mining requirements for BEV batteries. Beyond requiring new domestic sourcing strategies, electrifying all U.S. vehicles would take between 6 and 35 years of the world’s current raw material production. READ MORE

Excerpt from American Transport Research Institute/PR Newswire: The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today released a new report that assesses the infrastructure requirements for converting the U.S. vehicle fleet to battery electric. This analysis, a 2021 top priority of ATRI's Research Advisory Committee, focused on three critical challenges for nationwide vehicle electrification:

The study found that full electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet would require a large percentage of the country's present electricity generation. Domestic long-haul trucking would use more than 10 percent of the electricity generated in the country today – while an all-electric U.S. vehicle fleet would use more than 40 percent. Some individual states would need to generate as much as 60 percent more electricity than is presently produced.

ATRI's analysis also quantified the tens of millions of tons of cobalt, graphite, lithium and nickel that will be needed to replace the existing U.S. vehicle fleet with battery electric vehicles (BEV), placing high demand on raw materials. Depending on the material, electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet would require 6.3 to 34.9 years of current global production. This is the equivalent of 8.4 to 64.4 percent of global reserves for just the U.S. vehicle fleet.

Finally, it was found that charging the nation's long-haul truck fleet will prove challenging, partially due to the ongoing truck parking crisis. Current technology will necessitate more chargers than there are truck parking spaces in the U.S., with hardware and installation costs of $112,000 per unit, or more than $35 billion system-wide.

"Carbon-emissions reduction is clearly a top priority of the U.S. trucking industry, and feasible alternatives to internal combustion engines must be identified," said Srikanth Padmanabhan, President, Engine Business, Cummins Inc. "ATRI's research demonstrates that vehicle electrification in the U.S. will be a daunting task that goes well beyond the trucking industry – utilities, truck parking facilities and the vehicle production supply chain are critical to addressing the challenges identified in this research. Thus, the market will require a variety of decarbonization solutions and other powertrain technologies alongside battery electric."

Beyond BEV automobiles, the report concludes that while there are certain applications for BEV trucks, a completely new charging infrastructure is critical to increasing BEV truck adoption by the trucking industry. Furthermore, the research documents that existing raw material mining for BEV batteries will likely need to be re-sourced with an emphasis on domestic mining and production.

A copy of the full report is available through ATRI's website here.

ATRI is the trucking industry's 501c3 not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation's essential role in maintaining a safe, secure, and efficient transportation system. READ MORE