BUSES, VANS & TRUCKS

The CO2 problem isn’t just from our cars. The movement of goods around the world by ship, plane, truck, bus and van all contribute to our climate crisis. While many countries electrified their rail networks decades ago, buses, in most cities, are usually heavy polluting diesel machines. Indeed, the most polluted city street in the world at one point was London’s Oxford Street. This was in a large part due to the hundreds of red double-decker buses traversing this busy thoroughfare daily.

Diesel engines are the ideal heavy workhorses for the transport of people and goods, but they must go, and quickly. With cities introducing tighter emission standards and future ICE car bans, many companies in the goods transport sector have realised the writing is on the wall.

BUSES

Millions of heavy diesel buses around the world transport people at the expense of air quality and climate; this is all about to go.

Several start-ups as well as existing manufacturers are now about to release a slew of electric buses. Arrival is just one of those start-ups. Headquartered in London, Arrival has been developing electric bus and van concepts for a number of years.

Arrival’s goal has been to produce vehicles that are as cost-competitive as their gasoline equivalents. In October 2020 Arrival raised a further $118 million from US investment firm Blackrock, this is on top of their Hyundai investment of over $100 million.

Now a British unicorn (a company start-up valued at more than $1 billion) with a valuation of close to $4 billion, Arrival is on a path to being a huge UK electric success story.

Arrival’s electric bus is also a striking futuristic public transport vehicle. With side walls covered in LED panels for outside advertising and large, almost floor-to-ceiling windows, Arrival’s bus is striking and will be a beautiful fresh addition to city streets.

Once again this is not the first new electric bus company, this story goes way beyond Arrival. Borrowing the Edison name, a Korean electric bus start-up has also developed and is now producing electric buses. In China, BYD, have produced an electric bus and many major Chinese cities are making massive strides towards full electrification of their public transport infrastructure (more on China later).

Others, like US-based Proterra, are also developing electric buses. Given the smaller volumes, there won’t be anywhere near the same number of new start-ups in the bus market as with passenger vehicles, however, the choice and range are increasing and you can expect to see your city gradually move electric. Intraday charging for the heavily used EV buses has also produced some innovative solutions. For example, in Luxembourg, overhead power connecters have been installed that attach onto the roof charging ‘port’ while buses are parked at a terminus.

VANS

Being seen to be clean and green is now an essential part of any corporation’s mission. Companies like Amazon and UPS have made commitments to radically reduce their carbon footprints. To date, however, there’s been very little progress in the development of electric freight in comparison to passenger cars. This is about to change and rapidly; the last mile delivery market is witnessing a late but accelerating electric revolution.

United Parcel Service placed an order for 10,000 of Arrival’s future small vans and options for another 10,000. Freight electric vehicles deliver less range than passenger cars due to the weight to load ratio, of around 200 km. These vans are squarely aimed at the city market where deliveries take place during the day covering less than 200 km of driving, and charging takes place at the depot at night.

Mercedes already offer eSprinter and eVito van options, built on the old ICE platform but now with shoehorned batteries and motors.

China’s BYD, with an assembly factory in Lancaster, California is rolling out electric delivery (mid-sized Class 8-day cab – i.e. larger vans) trucks in the US.

Another Chinese-backed start-up, called Chanje, has developed a medium-duty van with a 3-ton payload capacity and 150 miles of range with over 900 on order for FedEx already.

Electric van start-up, Workhorse, has also come on the EV logistics scene with its C1000 and 950 orders from UPS.

On top of the environmental benefits, for the logistics companies, the maintenance costs are lower. Typical delivery van fleets get a lot of abuse on a day-to-day basis around city streets with constant start-stop driving. Apart from tires, much of the normal wear and tear of an internal combustion van or bus is gone with electric. I personally can’t wait to walk down a busy London or other major city street and have near silence and clean air.

TRUCKS

On the heavy truck side, it’s not just Tesla’s Semi making waves. There has been a host of new start-ups in the race to electrify the semi-truck and existing truck builders have also launched development programmes. Daimler’s Freightliner eCascadia electric truck is one example. You may think the batteries need to be enormous for long-distance road freight transport, however surprisingly in the US, 80 percent of freight is transported less than 250miles.

Electric trucks are viable with predictable routes and very definable charging at rest stops along major highways. A bigger challenge will be the electrification of freight depots and logistic distribution centres where loading and unloading can be done in less than 20 minutes.

Troubled start-up Nikola has created the Nikola One, Two and Three for the US and Chinese markets in a fully battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell configuration (more on hydrogen technology later).

Giant truck manufacturer Volvo has also developed a zero-emissions offering called the VNR. Already on pilot on Californian roads in partnership with California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) the company strategy is to prove, then scale its technology.

President Biden’s January 2021 pledge to replace 650,000 government vehicles with electric further accelerates commercial electrification. Whilst somewhat behind the passenger car market in terms of development, trucks, vans and buses are making a rapid sprint to the finish. With 25% of CO2 emissions coming from moving goods, this is a very positive development.