This digest was written by Policy Analyst Daniel Wilkins.
In collaboration with the Electrification Coalition, Atlas is thrilled to introduce a new dashboard dedicated to advancing the understating of freight vehicle electrification in the United States. The Electric Freight Dashboard brings together the many facets of freight electrification from the availability of funding to support freight electrification to the deployment of freight vehicles and supporting charging infrastructure.
We invite you to explore the dashboard for yourselves and let us know what you think!
Here are three key insights to get you started:
1. An estimated 56 percent of freight vehicles in the U.S. travel fewer than 100 miles per trip.
The Current Market page provides a detailed breakdown of electrification-relevant characteristics of U.S. freight vehicles. Utilizing the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recently released Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS), this page explores where different types of freight vehicles reside and how they are used. The inventory makes a compelling case for electrification, with an estimated 2.8 million out of 5 million vehicles reporting a maximum trip distance under 100 miles.
2. Fleets have already ordered or deployed over 180,000 electric freight vehicles.
The Vehicles page incorporates data from the Environmental Defense Fund’s Electric Fleet Deployment & Commitment List which tracks public commitments from fleets to deploy electric vehicles. The data shows strong industry momentum behind the electrification of freight including commitments of over 10,000 vehicles from Amazon, Merchants Fleet, UPS, and Walmart. Further, the rubber is beginning to hit the road as fleets have now publicly announced the deployment of over 6,000 electric freight vehicles.
3. Public charging infrastructure for freight vehicles is on the rise.
The Charging page presents new original data collected by Atlas on the buildout of charging infrastructure for freight vehicles. While the dashboard tracks 34 currently operational public charging ports dedicated for freight vehicles, plans have been announced to bring an additional 797 dedicated ports online in the coming years. Importantly, these charging depots extend beyond market-leading California including a recently announced 30 MW, 90-stall, charging hub in Findlay Ohio being developed by One Energy.
Why it matters:
The movement of goods is the primary purpose of most medium and heavy-duty vehicles on the road today and the transition to electric freight represents a massive economic and logistical undertaking. The Electric Freight Dashboard places crucial and consolidated data at the fingertips of shippers, manufacturers, policymakers, and advocates, to enable informed decision-making.
Looking ahead:
Like all of our dashboards, the Electric Freight Dashboard will be updated in real time as new announcements are made, vehicles are deployed, and funding becomes available. We invite you to leverage the dashboard to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable freight ecosystem. As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please get in touch!
Explore the dashboard here.
