Robert Sanchez sits in a truck cab surrounded by LED display screens that show him battery and hydrogen levels in the nearly year-old, zero-emission Nikola-made truck.
His job on this day involves hauling containers from the congested TraPac terminal in the Port of Los Angeles to a storage yard near the port. Sanchez will use a charging station on Terminal Island’s Pier S to refuel the $400,000 big-rig.
The charging station, a partner between 4 Gen Logistics and Electrify America, is part of the port complex’s strategy to reach zero emissions by 2035. The truck Sanchez is driving is one of hundreds of such next-generation vehicles that are part of a small but growing electric-truck ecosystem taking shape in California ahead of broader zero emission mandates.
Sanchez’s Class-8 EV drayage truck can travel about 350 miles when it’s fully charged, hydrogen-fueled and loaded with 80,000 pounds of goods. Stops include Inland Empire distribution centers for Procter & Gamble in Moreno Valley or the sportswear company United Legwear & Apparel Co. in Beaumont.
The 90-mile drive isn’t always a smooth one.
The EV truck and its nascent technology sometimes shows error messages like “loss of propulsion” or fuel cells about to shut down.
When this happens, Sanchez has to pull over and reboot the truck. If the reset doesn’t work, the next call is to Nikola for a tow truck.
“It’s like a computer on wheels. We’re still working through some of the bugs,” said David Thornburg, a contractor with 4 Gen Logistics in Rialto who helped assembled the company’s fleet of 79 EV trucks.
4 Gen Logistics is one of myriad EV truck startups in Southern California that are taking advantage of billions of dollars in investor capital and government subsidies aimed at electrifying the nation’s massive truck fleet.
Truck driver Robert Sanchez with 4 Gen Logistics is surrounded by LED screens that tell him how much of a charge his truck’s batteries have, as well as hydrogen in the fuel cells. He occasionally calls a tow truck when the propulsion system can’t get rebooted. He always stops at the 4 Gen charging station at Pier S on Terminal Island before driving to Rialto and other places in the Inland Empire. (Photo by Pat Maio, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Growing pains
The commercial EV truck industry is still taking baby steps to overcome myriad technological challenges.
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“All developmental vehicles go through growing pains,” said John Harris, CEO of Garden Grove-based Harbinger Motors Inc., which is ramping up production on smaller medium-sized EV delivery trucks that can haul up to 26,000 pounds in cargo on the chassis it’s developing.
“You spend years developing a new truck,” he said.
The shift to EV trucks comes as California endeavors to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The California Air Resources Board says diesel-fueled commercial trucks, which represent just 6% of vehicles on the road here, produce a quarter of such emissions and over a third of nitrogen oxide air pollutants.
The state has committed to zero-emission truck sales by 2035, with different sizes and options to begin transitioning next year. All trucks that travel California roads must be fully transitioned to clean technology by 2045.
While California’s EV registrations represent 39% of all EVs in the United States, the effort to electrify commercial trucks hasn’t garnered the same headline-grabbing attention. Nonetheless, the state is an early leader.
4 Gen Logistics has 15 of the Nikola trucks in its fleet, which also includes all battery-operated drayage trucks made by Kenworth, Volvo and BYD. The company’s last three diesel trucks have been retired, Thornburg said.
“We’re the only trucking company in North America that’s 100% EV,” said Thornburg, who is responsible for the fleet owned by parent Duncan and Son Lines Inc. of Buckeye, Arizona. “That’s 10 years before it’s required in California.”
4 Gen Logistics unveiled 30 new hyper-fast chargers that will quickly power the company’s growing fleet of 79 heavy-duty electric trucks serving the Port of Long Beach. This will mark the largest charging facility in any North American port to date. The chargers, capable of speeds up to 350 kilowatts, were developed in collaboration with Electrify America and mark 4 Gen’s commitment to a fully 100% zero-emissions fleet.(Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
Trucking experts say Southern California has attracted technological innovation from a handful of newcomers to the region – thanks to clean air initiatives in the Ports of LA and Long Beach and other federal and state efforts. Such efforts are helping push the region to the forefront of EV truck innovation, leading ports from around the world to ask local operators how they are achieving that goal.
Veloz, a market data firm that collects EV data from the California Energy Commission and CARB, estimates the state has about 853 medium and heavy-duty EV trucks on the road, 869 EV delivery trucks and 2,062 EV-run buses.
Amber Coluso, environmental specialist with the Port of Los Angeles, said its drayage registry shows 421 zero-emission trucks operating in the dual ports, likely the biggest concentration of zero-emission trucks in the U.S., if not world. That’s less than 2% of the total 22,000 registered trucks in the ports, and 3.5% of the 12,000 diesel-fueled trucks that drive in and out of the ports daily.
“We’ve succeeded in bringing the market to fruition,” said Niki Okuk, deputy director of trucks with CALSTART Inc., a Pasadena-based nonprofit that promotes the clean transportation technology industry.
EV truck speed bumps
While the boom to convert the nation’s truck fleet is attractive to venture capitalists, the speed to convert is facing pushback.
Industry sources estimate the EV truck market in the U.S. growing to $500 billion by the early 2030s. The medium-sized cargo delivery and vans could grow to $200 billion.
Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election isn’t expected to slow the momentum to add EV trucks to the ports or end innovation in the region. The president-elect, who has vowed to end federal policies that encourage EV sales, has previously targeted environmental regulations that mandate lower-pollution emissions.
Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, a trade group representing drayage trucking firms operating in West Coast ports, said the EV technology needs to catch up with the spending. He said that “unprecedented money” has been thrown at buying the zero-emission trucks.
“We are not opposed to zero-emission technology, but things need to be slowed down,” he said. “It’ll be good to pump the breaks a bit because we were careening off the road.”
Innovation incubator
That investment in EV trucks has helped Southern California become an innovation incubator.
Familiar trucking names also are participating in the EV truck gold rush. Freightliner, Kenworth, PACCAR, Peterbilt, Toyota and Volvo all are developing EV models, depending on the truck segment and weight class.
EV truck newcomers include:
—Brea-based Mullen Automotive Inc., a truck maker whose Bollinger Motors unit began assembling EV cargo vans this past year at plants in Tunica, Mississippi, and Mishawaka, Indiana;
—Garden Grove-based Harbinger Motors, which relocated its headquarters from Gardena in July and is focusing on the medium-sized EV cargo delivery truck market;
—New Jersey-based Cenntro Inc., which recently opened a large plant in Ontario where it plans to assemble drayage trucks and cargo vans.
Observers say the EV truck market is gaining traction thanks to billions of dollars in stimulus money for clean air initiatives provided by state and federal agencies and the port complex.
Buying an EV truck has become more affordable for companies like 4 Gen Logistics because of a voucher program — backed by CARB and administered by CALSTART — that collects a $20 per-container fee from drayage companies in the port complex.
From April 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, the Port of Long Beach collected $95.3 million for its clean truck program while the Port of Los Angeles brought in roughly $100 million. In late 2023, the two ports kicked in $30 million apiece to assist in the conversion to zero-emissions drayage in the ports.
All the money has been reserved for a program called the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, dubbed HVIP.
A Port of Long Beach spokesman said the port is considering “putting in more funds and reopening the program next year, and assessing the level at which we would fund the program.”
According to Thornburg, the HVIP vouchers along with state and federal subsidies have paid about half the average $500,000 cost of an EV truck. “Without vouchers, we couldn’t afford many zero emission trucks.”
Billions more has come from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to promote clean energy.
In late October, the Port of Los Angeles was awarded $412 million from the EPA’s Clean Ports Program to support the zero-emission transition. The new funding will go toward buying nearly 425 pieces of battery-powered, cargo-handling equipment, 300 new charging ports and 250 EV drayage trucks.
Gaining traction
Mullen in recent months landed $10 million in financing from Robert Bollinger, the founder of Bollinger Motors in Michigan, regained Nasdaq compliance to trade on the stock exchange following three reverse stock splits in 2023, and made its first delivery of EV trucks on the West Coast. It also was approved for a voucher program in New York similar to the one offered by the Southern California ports. On Nov. 12, Mullen said it began leasing its first EV cargo van in Florida.
In September, the United Arab Emirate-based Volt Mobility placed $210 million worth of pre-orders with Mullen for EV vans and trucks before they were even available.The deal with Volt Mobility would provide 300 all-electric commercial cargo vans, heavy-duty pickups and commercial trucks this year and another 3,000 in 2025.
Cenntro’s CEO Peter Wang said his company is in the midst of a restructuring.
Earlier this year, the company abruptly ceased operations at its Jacksonville, Florida, facility and began working to set up the assembly plant in Ontario to assemble commercial electric delivery vans and trucks.
“It had a lot to do with our access to the ports,” Wang said. “California is ground zero for where all the voices are who are committed to this technology.”
Last month, Cenntro showed off new EV delivery trucks and its first Class 8 drayage truck – called Deepstar — to support the West Coast market.
“I don’t think those incentives (for HVIP) will last forever, but maybe in a few years they’ll be all gone,” Wang said. “We moved here because California consumes nearly half of the EVs. Why would we stay in Florida? California has the best electrical grid in the nation.”
According to Wang, Cenntro also has plans to move its battery plant in Monterrey, Mexico, to either Greenville, South Carolina, or Ontario.
“We are at a turning point now because we have products to sell,” he said. “You need to sell close to 50,000 trucks a year. If you don’t hit that, you’re going to go away.”
Harbinger Motors is another new entrant to the EV truck market.
The EV truck maker was co-founded in 2021 by Harris, who worked at Costa Mesa-based defense technology company Anduril Industries Inc. and EV startups Faraday Future of Gardena and Xos Trucks in northeast Los Angeles.
Co-founders include Phillip Weicker, who serves as Harbinger’s chief technology officer and who formerly had key roles with San Jose-based lithium battery developer QuantumScape and Torrance-based EV carmaker Canoo; and Will Eberts, chief operating officer who worked with Harris at Faraday Future and with Weicker at Canoo.
In May, Harbinger Motors said three companies placed a combined $400 million worth of orders for 4,000 commercial EV cargo delivery truck chassis.
Those buyers include the bread delivery company Bimbo Bakeries USA, the Nebraska-based postal service operator Mail Management Services Inc., and recreational vehicle maker THOR Industries in Elkhart, Indiana.
Harbinger Motors is backed by venture capital money, with $100 million funded to date and another $82 million expected to scale-up production, according to Harris and Crunchbase, which tracks funding data for startups.
Privately-held Harbinger Motors, an electric vehicle chassis and axle maker for delivery vehicles that look like Fed-Ex and UPS trucks, employs 250 people in technical, design and engineering jobs at its Knott Avenue plant. It could add another 100 people over the next year.
“We’ll need more space eventually,” Harris said. “California is at the epicenter of the US electric vehicle revolution. It’s all clustered here. This is an area with a lot of engineering talent.”