A new grant program for electrifying fleets in Massachusetts will help expand use of medium- and heavy-duty (M/HD) electric vehicles, but Sean Everett with HDR says electrification of M/HD fleets will have its limits with current technology.

Short trips from warehouses to grocery stores and other delivery services are well-suited for electrification, Everett, who is EV power lead at the engineering consulting group, told NetZero Insider.

But for long-haul trucking, the technology “is not quite there yet,” Everett said.

The Massachusetts Center for Clean Energy (MassCEC) is providing $1 million in grant funding to support vehicle fleet managers in planning and purchasing M/HD EV fleets.

The state needs to plan where it can deploy electric fleets and have them be successful to avoid leaving companies with a “bad flavor in their mouth for the next round of deployments,” Everett said.

Some fleets don’t have a set schedule that guarantees enough time for charging before another long-range trip. But the state grant funding will be useful for fleets that can charge for six to eight hours overnight.

MassCEC is targeting a range of fleet types, including small businesses such as local food purveyors, moving companies and building trades with vans. Larger firms such as grocery store chains are also eligible.

The fleet advisory program will play a crucial role in “mitigating health impacts related to air pollution in overburdened communities,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement.

MassCEC released a request for proposals late last week for consultants and professionals with experience in M/HD fleet electrification to help provide analyses and recommendations to companies interested in the program.

In Massachusetts, M/HD fleets produce more than a quarter of the greenhouse gases emitted from on-road vehicles.

Vehicle electrification is an important step in reaching the state’s climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and MassCEC is “looking to bridge the gap between planning for and procuring electric fleets by stepping in to provide necessary technical services for the electrification process,” MassCEC CEO Steve Pike said in a statement.

Impact on the Grid

Pilot electric fleet programs have not put a large strain on utilities, Everett said. But as fleets electrify and grow, significant infrastructure improvements such as new substations and transformers will be needed.

In Massachusetts and other densely developed states, space for the infrastructure support is a potential issue, he said.

Solar panels installed on the roof of the fleet depot or maintenance facility can offset increased loads from electrification.

“But what we found at this point is that the technology still isn’t there to completely offset the demand that’s going to be there from the fleets themselves from an onsite generation perspective,” Everett said.