California wants to replace polluters with electric vehicles
California is looking to launch new rules that could help clean the air but also make driving a diesel truck much more expensive.
“We’re finally making a real effort to remove diesel trucks from California’s roads and highways forever,” said Stanley Young, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.
With 1.5 million diesel vehicles on the road in California, trucking is big business. Car hauler David Tran said he has concerns about the state’s push toward electric vehicles.
“They can’t put electric pumps everywhere around the country for us to charge up,” Tran said.
California wants to be the first state in the nation to replace diesel trucks over the next 10 years with "zero emission" vehicles.
“California has the worst air quality in the United States,” said Jimmy O’Dea, of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “That disproportionately affects low-income and communities of color.”
California’s smoggy air is a big concern for kindergarten teacher Brenda Angulo. She told KCRA 3 her elementary school in Southern California is just a two-minute drive from a freeway.
“We have inclement-weather days where students are not allowed to go outside because of the air quality,” Angulo said. “On days that they can go out, I get students saying, 'My mom doesn’t let me run today because I have weak lungs, the air quality is low.’”
California's worst-in-the-nation air quality is part of why California is looking to adopt new rules of the road for diesel vehicles.
“We require that manufacturers who sell trucks in California ramp up their sales of zero emission trucks so that by 2030, half of all box trucks and delivery trucks will need to be zero emission,” Young said.
“And fifteen percent of the tractor trailers, the big rigs, will also need to be zero emission,” Young added.
“Certain large fleets like FedEx and PepsiCo are already transitioning to zero emission,” Young said. “The technology is coming up very quickly. And we are confident this requirement will accelerate that development.”
KCRA 3 on Thursday got a glimpse of the new clean energy vehicles California is trying to promote. One is a garbage and recycling truck now on the roads in Sacramento County.
Another is a Pepsi tractor truck manufactured by TransPower, an early-stage developer of electric-drive heavy-duty vehicles.
“Each one of these (battery) packs is good for about 20 miles,” said Joshua Goldman, TransPower’s vice president of business development. “So you have a 120-mile range on this truck.”
California’s goal is to have thousands of these vehicles on the road in the next five years.
Tesla is already developing a high-range, all-electric truck, and some big rig drivers welcome the changes ahead.
“I’m all about the planet, so whatever is better,” said a trucker who only gave his first name of Tommy.
But other truckers worry that electric vehicles could give them range anxiety when it comes to filling up.
“We’re going a thousand miles-plus," said Tyler Davis, a trucker from Reno. “And having to sit there and charge the vehicle overnight isn’t really feasible right now.”
The all-electric trucks are also not cheap.
“Right now, it can be two to three times the cost just for the chassis itself,” Goldman said. “When you’re talking refuse, that can be $200,000 to $300,000 more expensive than the standard truck.”
But Goldman added, “If you’re looking at the long-term play, between five and 10 years, you can recoup your costs of that 10- to 20-year truck.”
The new rules however, are not a done deal.
A public hearing Thursday was the first of two the state is hosting. There will be another one in the spring, and then a vote by the California Air Resources Board.
Some environmental groups want the new standards to be even more aggressive, because they are based on future sales and not the actual number of electric trucks on the road.
“CARB’s proposal would result in just 4 percent of trucks on the road being electric by 2030,” said O’Dea of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The air resources board did not dispute the 4 percent figure. However, they added, “by 2030, there will be roughly 75,000 of these zero emission trucks,” Young said. “And that will constitute roughly 4 percent of all existing trucks in California.”