California is leading a trend of growing zero-emission truck deployments across the U.S., a new report shows.

A total of 1,895 zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks were purchased and deployed across the U.S. from January 2017 to March 2022, with 1,133 of the vehicles rolled out in California, according to the report released Thursday by CALSTART, a national nonprofit focused on clean transportation technologies.

New York had the second-largest zero-emission truck deployment in that period, with 134 ZETs purchased and placed into service, followed by New Jersey and Colorado, which had 65 and 57 ZETs deployed, respectively.

The report is an update to an earlier CALSTART ZET inventory report released in January. The new report covers vehicle classes 2b to 8, which range from larger pickup trucks to big rig trucks.

Broken down by vehicle type, 742 yard tractors were purchased and deployed over the study period, making them the largest category of ZETs. That was followed by step vans, with 521 ZETs purchased and deployed.

“Zero-emission yard tractors and other vehicles with low-range requirements are dominating MHD ZET deployed sales,” the report said.

Eighty-four heavy-duty ZETs, in vehicle classes 7 and 8, were rolled out during the study period. Although some other vehicle types had a bigger number of ZETs deployed, heavy-duty ZETs had the largest average annual growth rate from 2017 through 2021, at 1,400%, according to the report.

The trend for heavy-duty ZETs is expected to continue as more manufacturers enter the market and others expand their offerings.

‘Strong Growth’ for ZETs

Although the number of ZETs is small relative to the 26 million medium- and heavy-duty trucks registered in the U.S. in 2021, ZET sales are climbing. Looking at year-over-year figures, ZET sales grew by 78% in 2018, 26% in 2019, 65% in 2020 and 155% in 2021.

“The U.S. [medium- and heavy-duty] ZET market is experiencing strong growth,” the new report said.

In addition to zero-emission trucks that are already on the road, CALSTART said in its earlier report that there were more than 140,000 pending orders for commercial ZETs awaiting fulfillment.

Some companies have announced plans to expand their ZET fleets. For example, Amazon has pledged to buy 100,000 zero-emission delivery vehicles over the next eight years, the report noted.

In June, outside the timeframe of the new report, FedEx received its first 150 electric delivery vehicles from BrightDrop, a General Motors subsidiary. The Zevo 600 vehicles were provided to FedEx Express locations in Southern California, the company said in a release.

Under an agreement between FedEx and BrightDrop, FedEx will add 2,500 Zevo 600s to its operations over the next few years. FedEx plans to move to an entirely zero-emission parcel pickup and delivery fleet by 2040.

Policy Plays a Role

California has been able to take the lead in ZET deployments in large part due to its strong ZET policies, the CALSTART report said.

California runs the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP), a program that has provided $542 million to help fund the purchase of 5,337 ZETs, the report said.

In 2020, the California Air Resources Board adopted what it called a first-in-the-world rule that will require truck manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks based on their total California sales starting in 2024.

States including Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York have adopted California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule. And 15 states and the District of Columbia signed an agreement in 2020 to work together to accelerate truck electrification.