WASHINGTON — The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has announced that eight fleet depots will participate in its Run on Less — Electric DEPOT program, which begins Sept. 11.
The event is designed to put electric rigs to the test in real world applications while sharing information about them, according to the NACFE.
To participate in the Run, companies had to have 15 or more electric vehicles (EVs) at a single location and be willing to share information with the rest of the industry, a news release noted.
The eight participating fleets are:
- Frito-Lay in Queens, New York.
- OK Produce in Fresno, California.
- Penske in Ontario, California.
- Pepsi Beverages in Sacramento, California.
- Performance Team Logistics in Commerce, California.
- Schneider in South El Monte, California.
- UPS in Compton, California.
- WattEV in Long Beach, California.
“These eight fleets represent a variety of use cases and duty cycles with a variety of charging needs,” the news release stated. “Sometime soon we will announce which trucks at each fleet depot we will be tracking, but this Run is about more than the trucks themselves. As we have in previous Runs, we will go onsite before the Run to meet with fleet managers and drivers, but this time we will also talk to utilities and others involved in the scaling of electric trucks at these locations.”
Some key data points to be collected during the Run are:
- How much power is really needed to charge these commercial vehicles?
- Why does it take so long to get the infrastructure in place?
- What are the footprint challenges in deciding to place the infrastructure?
- How should I approach managing the charging to save electricity costs?
- What are the challenges around different trucks and charging systems?
“While some of our data collected during the Run will focus on the trucks, the majority of our effort will be on infrastructure and charging requirements — areas that present challenges to fleets — so we can offer recommendations on overcoming these challenges,” the news release stated.
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