Accelerate the World's Transition to Sustainable Energy - to fight Anthropogenic Climate Change, page-33630

Battery-electric trucks cost about three times as much to purchase as a diesel rig. There are federal and state programs to help offset the purchase costs, but operating costs and other issues present big hurdles.

Truckers say battery-electric truck operations are too difficult to set up and too expensive and inefficient to run. It can take years to install on-site charging facilities for trucks that can travel less than half as far as diesel rigs between refuelling and that require at least several hours to recharge...

Ryder says that so far it has sold just 60 vehicles through the program and that most of those are light-duty trucks.

It says three companies are running battery-electric heavy-duty trucks, but those five vehicles are only being used in yards to shuttle trailers between parking spots and loading docks.

Sanchez said that unlike passenger-vehicle owners who might buy an electric car on principle, companies will only switch to battery technology when it can compete with diesel on the cost of running the vehicle.

Heavier costs

Ryder, using load and route data from 13,000 vehicles it operates on behalf of customers, recently analysed the annual operating expenses of battery-electric commercial trucks and found sharply higher costs compared with traditional, diesel-powered rigs.

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