Monty Mann finally got the chance on Wednesday to test drive one of the electric heavy-duty trucks he's been hearing about. When he did, it was impressive in ways he expected — good acceleration, regenerative braking and a quiet ride — but surprising in a different respect.
"It's more spacious than it actually looks on the outside," said the president of Bakersfield-based trucking company Pride Line Carrier Inc.
More important for him is whether such a truck would suit the company's needs, especially its range and total operating cost. Although Mann wasn't able to deliver a final verdict Wednesday afternoon, he did predict Pride Line will own its first electric truck before long and then buy up to nine more of the trucks within the next three years.
Wednesday's event, which attracted more than a half-dozen trucking companies, represented another step toward California's goal of replacing air-polluting diesel trucks with cleaner-running alternatives subsidized by state taxpayers.
Major manufacturers are beginning to roll out the kind of heavy-duty trucks that can carry full shipping containers and other loads along routes such as the roughly 130-mile trip between the southern Central Valley and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Obstacles still stand in the way, such as a dearth of battery-charging infrastructure and, in the case of zero-emission fuel-cell vehicles, the availability of hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure. But on Wednesday, optimism about the latest electric-truck technology's potential may have outweighed the skepticism.
One of the event's organizers, co-founder Ollie Danner of Bakersfield-based California Clean Transportation, said the trucks test-driven Wednesday, made by Phoenix-based Nikola Corp., offer tighter turning radius and greater torque. Before a trucking company is going to commit to buying a zero-emission vehicle, though, he said it must know that its operating costs will lower.
In a test of Nikola's trucks Wednesday, one of its tractor-trailers loaded with grapes from the Arvin area took a trip up and down the Grapevine, regaining some lost charge on the way back because of regenerative braking. According to California Clean Transportation co-founder Stephen Amstutz, the vehicle lost a net 17 percent of its battery charge, fully loaded, after the incline and the decline.
His company hopes to work with transportation companies to gain access to incentives, establish charging stations in places like Castaic and Lebec and help drivers book a place in line when it's time to recharge a truck.
Electric trucks now on the market, or soon to be, can run for between 150 and 350 miles on a charge, depending on the manufacturer and conditions such as load and temperature. With less maintenance, he said their operating expenses total about a quarter of what it costs to run a diesel truck. How long it takes to recharge an electric truck depends on the charging station, with higher wattage bringing down the time required.
Interest in the field has grown such that, in June, Danner said a few thousand people came together in Fontana to check out about five dozen trucks made by different electric-vehicle manufacturers.
"We're trying to educate," he said, "We're not trying to force the technology on anybody."
A key partner in the push for zero-emission trucking is the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. For 15 years it has pushed the transition from diesel-burning trucks that have accounted for a sizable share of the region's dirty air.
Most of the cash incentives it uses to promote cleaner trucks have gone to subsidies for replacing older vehicles with newer ones fueled by compressed natural gas, known to emit less smog-forming nitrogen oxides.
Electric vehicle purchases have also been financially supported by the district, but they have mostly been limited to small, delivery-type trucks. Only recently is the air district seeing fleet managers apply for reimbursement for half or more of the cost of a heavy-duty truck, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
The district also makes grants to help cover the cost of installing private vehicle battery-charging facilities. Public facilities go through a different process, but the agency helps cover their costs, too.
District spokeswoman Jaime Holt said the agency hopes to receive additional state and federal money to continue providing financial incentives to help the transition away from diesel-powered hauling.
Mann, at Pride Line, said he remains concerned about electric trucks' range of travel on a charge. Weight limitations are another point of concern, as are battery life and the cost of replacing them.
His view was that the need to move to electric trucks seems "pretty obvious, especially with fuel prices as high as they are right now." He said having more charging stations will make adopting the new technology easier.
"Obviously, the more infrastructure you get," Mann said, "the easier it's going to be to operate these."
