NEWSNOTES | May 25, 2023
News Notes

Volvo trucks will be selling 1,000 electric trucks between now and 2030 to Holcim, a sustainable building company marking their largest commercial order to date. Switzerland based Holcim plans to deploy the trucks across their operations in Europe beginning this year. News is still coming out from the very successful ACT Expo earlier this month and HDT profiles their experience test driving the Workhorse last-mile electric package delivery van. Additional markets they are targeting include utility services, construction and maintenance contractors, and industrial services.

Curious about what’s going on with Nikola? So was Jason Morgan with Fleet Equipment who had a chance to interview Nikola CEO Michael Lohscheller as he talked about the future of the company. The company has their Class 8 battery-electric truck on the market as well as a dealer network with 42 locations in 18 states. Their new brand HYLA, Hydrogen Nikola, was on display at ACT Expo. Global auto tech company SEA Electric launched their SEA-Drive 250 featuring a 45kW hydrogen fuel cell for extended range at ACT. SEA founder and CEO Tony Fairweather said the power system is well suited for the rigors of lighter duty refuse collection.

Israeli based Electreon aims to break EV range anxiety by traveling non-stop for 100 hours in the Toyota RAV4 PHEV without depleting its 18 kwh battery. The demonstration started three days ago with the PHEV being driven around an oval-shaped track, 25% of which has wireless electric road charging technology within it.

Sustainable Bus sat down with CALSTART’s Mike Hynes, National Transit Bus Program Manager, to talk about what trends and developments he’s seeing in the industry. The article provides good information on  everything from e-bus market growth to the role the IRA is likely to have in growing zero-emission bus adoption.  In partnership with the World Resources Institute (WRI), CALSTART published a white paper on the school bus market. Canary Media shows four WRI charts, including committed electric school buses by state.

There’s even more innovation out of CALSTART and look no further than TRANSITION to Zero which is the first podcast devoted to zero-emission transit buses. The brainchild behind this is none other than the very talented Jared Schnader who leads our bus initiative.

Finally, mark your calendar for the Zero-Emission Truck & Off-Road Equipment Showcase and Ride & Drive in Fresno, CA on June 21, 2023. Featured experts include the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and their Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP), the Clean Off-Road Equipment Incentive Project (CORE), and the California Energy Commission (CEC), and their Energy Infrastructure Incentives for Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles (EnergIIZE) project. Contact vthorsen@calstart.org for more information.

RESOURCES

Volvo Scores Its Largest Order for Electric Trucks, electrek | https://rb.gy/mnx4b 

Driving the Workhorse Electric Walk-In Van, HDT | https://rb.gy/qm121 

Nikola CEO on Battery Electric Trucks and Future of Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Fleet Equipment Magazine | https://rb.gy/qf9x9 

SEA Added a Hydrogen Power Option, Fleet Equipment | https://rb.gy/ub4wz 

Wireless Charging Smashes Range Limits for EVs, eeNews | https://rb.gy/cbco7 

Growth of the Zero Emission Bus Market, Sustainable Bus | https://rb.gy/dhs43 

How US School Buses are Going Electric, Canary Media | https://rb.gy/hpwte 

CALSTART Launches Podcast Focused on Zero Emissions, Metro Magazine https://rb.gy/uvtrg 

Zero-Emission Truck and Off-Road Equipment Showcase, Fresno, California OEMs and  Non-OEM Registration Links