Overcoming barriers to EV trucks – report

Zero-emission trucks will be lower cost than diesel within five to 10 years, but barriers such as the cost to owners is “significantly frustrating efficient uptake”, says an 83-page report for the Ministry of Transport.

The report has been published by Concept Consulting and Retyna on policy options for supporting efficient uptake of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) trucks.

The report finds that ZEV trucks (and battery electric vehicle or BEV trucks in particular) will become lower cost than diesel within five to 10 years on a public (whole-of-New Zealand) and total cost of ownership basis due to rapid technology gains and the expanding variety of ZEV models.

“However, due to several barriers, the private cost (to truck owners) of ZEV trucks is higher than the public cost – significantly frustrating efficient uptake,” says a principal author, Concept Consulting Group director Simon Coates.

The report called “Policies to incentivise the uptake of zero-emission trucks” says trucks account for 3.5% of vehicles on New Zealand roads but, because of weight and longer distances travelled, they account for about 25% of road vehicle fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Produced long with fellow principal author Retyna consultants managing director Liz Yeaman, the report analyses how the Government could support efficient uptake.

A suite of policy options to overcome the barriers facing ZEV trucks is recommended.

These include ZEV sales mandates for truck suppliers, financial incentives for truck purchasers, joint (public and private) investment in truck-scale recharging/fuelling stations, changes to electricity network upgrade cost allocation for depot chargers, and changes to road user charges (RUC) and vehicle dimensions and mass (VDAM) rules.

The report also examines hydrogen fuel cell (FCEV) developments for trucks.

Click here to access the full report.