The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) will be conducting Run on Less – Electric (RoL-E), an electric truck technology demonstration, in 2021.
Leading up to and throughout the run, NACFE will showcase electric trucks in everyday operation and the actions needed to accelerate their adoption. The actual Run will begin in September.
RoL-E will feature up to 10 dedicated trucks, drivers and charging infrastructure systems across the U.S. and Canada, supported by their fleets and truck OEM partners. Vehicles from vans to medium-duty box trucks to heavy-duty tractors will be moving freight in different duty cycles and geographic and climate areas.
The technology on the trucks in RoL-E will be at an earlier stage of development and deployment than in previous Run on Less events. The goal is to showcase equipment that is representative of the truck builders’ plans, NACFE says. Given the limited number of electric trucks in service, many of them in pre-production mode, RoL-E fleet participants will be teams made up of the fleet and their OEM partners.
NACFE says it will be working collaboratively with diverse organizations across the large ecosystem of zero-emissions vehicles to bring a full understanding of how these trucks are being deployed.
To complement the demonstration and data collection components of RoL-E, NACFE and RMI will be hosting a series of virtual educational events (E-series) designed to convene industry stakeholders to discuss the why and how of electric truck deployments. The E-series is an opportunity to learn from leaders in fleet electrification beyond the formal run participants and will include discussions with fleet managers, charging providers, utilities, engineering firms, policymakers, and more, NACFE says. Those interested in learning more about electric trucks and working together to overcome challenges to deploying these zero-emission vehicles are encouraged to review the E-series schedule — set to be released in April — and register their participation.
NACFE says it hopes the run will allow it to learn more about the implementation of electric trucks at fleets including things like needed infrastructure, total cost of ownership, training needs and more.
NACFE is also announcing a call for participants for Run on Less – Electric. Fleets and truck OEMs can complete an application using the form available on their website. You can contact Dave Schaller at [email protected] or Mike Roeth at [email protected] with questions.
