The electrification of trucking fleets will require utilities to adopt smart grid technologies and design new rates, panelists said during a SEPA panel.

Electric utilities would be responsible for wiring and providing backbone infrastructure to install chargers but would be operators "of last resort."

Zero-emission buses, box trucks and tractor trailers have already generated billions in economic activity and created hundreds of thousands of jobs, EDF says.

Zeroing out transportation emissions by 2050 will require getting 218 million EVs on the road worldwide by 2030. Business as usual won't work, BNEF says. 

Proposed rules that would require vendors in New Jersey to increase sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks by 2035 faced vigorous criticism.

Canadian EV manufacturer Lion Electric plans to build a plant in Illinois to produce medium- and heavy-duty urban trucks and school buses.

N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper signed on to a letter to President Biden, urging “all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks sold are zero-emission no later than 2035.”

A grant program for electrifying fleets in Massachusetts will help medium- and heavy-duty fleets expand, but there are technological limits.

The DOE said transportation accounts for the largest share of the nation's GHG emissions and must be significantly reduced to reach net zero by 2050.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is preparing a draft proposal on how to encourage the installation of EV chargers for heavy-duty electric trucks.