The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) released the fourth and final market segment report—Electric Trucks Have Arrived: The Use Case For Medium-Duty Box Trucks—based on findings from last year’s Run on Less – Electric (RoL-E) freight efficiency demonstration.
 
The top level finding from the report is that 100% of that market segment will embrace electrification although some applications within the duty cycle will be easier to electrify than others that have more complex operations. When the simpler box truck portion of this market segment, about 380,000 trucks in the US and Canada, electrifies, it will result in the avoidance of 7,681,707 metric tonnes (MT) of CO₂e annually.

The Use Case for Medium-Duty Box Trucks from NACFE on Vimeo.

Three fleet-OEM pairs in RoL-E operated medium-duty box trucks: Day & Ross with a Class 6 Lion6, Frito-Lay with a Class 6 Peterbilt-Cummins 220EV, and Roush Fenway Racing with a Class 6 ROUSH CleanTech Ford F-650.

The report found that medium-duty box trucks are a great application for electric trucks given their short distances and return-to-base operations. The vast majority of medium-duty box trucks are not driven long distances and are home very night. They are an ideal portion of the overall medium-duty truck market for electrification. However, more complex Class 6 and 7 trucks such as snowplows, refuse trucks, and fire trucks will require significant efforts which will delay the timing of electrification.

The report includes some basic information about medium-duty box trucks and the size and scope of the market. It looks at duty cycle and charging considerations and presents the benefits and challenges of battery electric vehicles. It includes information on the manufacturers and fleets that had medium-duty box trucks in the Run and provides details on what metrics were measured. There also is a discussion of total cost of operation.