This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Net Zero Carbon Summit Thursday. 

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Despite state and federal initiatives and private company goals to decarbonize transportation, there has long been a question whether trucking was suited to reach some of those ambitious targets and mandates. Ann Rundle of ACT Research says her company is optimistic it can do so.

DETAILS: Ann Rundle is a vice president at ACT Research. She has a long career with large companies such as Stellantis, the owner of Chrysler, and startups in the battery field. She and ACT Research are optimistic that targets for battery or other alternative technologies will be met, bringing about a revolution in trucking. The California Clean Fleets and Truck rules are a major spur to that, Rundle said.

KEY QUOTES FROM ANN RUNDLE:

“Early in my career I learned that with trucking, there’s a value proposition on commercial vehicles that are looking at payback and operating savings and so on and not necessarily looking at price parity. So I decided I wanted to get in to commercial vehicles.”

“We expect that by 2030 in North America, in Class 4 through Class 8 vehicles, we will see about 25% of the market will primarily be battery electric and we will see that tipping point of 50% by 2040. So it will be a significant change from where we are today.”

“People ask us, ‘How can you have this kind of adoption rate if the total cost of operation is barely there?’ We tell them that so much of our adoption rate for Class 8 tractors until 2028 or 2029 is being pushed by CARB’s Advanced Clean Truck rule.”