Georgia ranks among top states for zero-emission truck adoption

Georgia ranks fifth in the U.S. in zero-emission truck adoption when adjusted for market size.

A new report by CALSTART, a clean transportation group, finds Georgia only ranks behind California, Washington, Wisconsin, and New Jersey in normalized adoption.

Dakota Semler, co-founder and CEO of Xos Trucks, said battery-electric trucks are ready for most commercial routes contributing to the more than 59,0000 of these trucks being used nationwide.

“Over 70% of the commercial vehicles on the road today are generally doing under 200 miles,” he said. “They’re returning to the same home base where they can have dedicated charging, and they’re operating on predictable routes. And with the technology that exists today and has existed for several years now, you actually can electrify the vast majority of our commercial vehicle fleet in North America.”

Many in the trucking industry remain skeptical because of the high up-front costs and lack of a widespread charging infrastructure.

However, Stefan Tongur, vice president for business development at Electreon, said inductive charging allows the vehicle to charge while its moving and could alleviate many infrastructure concerns.

“By charging the vehicles when they actually are operating and when they need to get charged, instead of bringing the vehicle to the charger like in a gas model, we’re changing that paradigm and making electric vehicles more feasible, and easier to adapt, and easier to scale,” he said.

Zero-emission trucks offer advantages, such as low maintenance costs and lower fuel costs, as well as having health benefits by eliminating tailpipe emissions, according to the report.