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Jamie Hall is Director of Policy at EV Realty, where he leads policy and regulatory strategy and advocacy. His work focuses on accelerating truck electrification through proactive engagement with policymakers and stakeholders around scalable incentive structures, regulatory requirements, utility and grid considerations, and related market development activities.
Most recently, he led EV infrastructure and energy policy initiatives for General Motors. In this role, he managed policy engagement around charging infrastructure deployment, charging reliability and interoperability, grid integration and optimization, electricity rates, utility programs and processes, and equitable electrification. Before joining GM, he led policy advocacy and coalition building for CALSTART with a primary focus on medium- and heavy-duty fleet solutions.
Why is it important to electrify trucking/transport?
Medium and heavy-duty trucks make up only 5 percent of vehicles on the road but account for nearly a quarter percent of climate pollution from the U.S. transportation sector. Given this emissions impact along with electric efficiency benefits and longer term cost trends, there is a general agreement that the future of on-road transportation is electric. The question is just how do we go about transforming this sector, and how fast can we move?
The need to electrify trucking is particularly pressing given local air quality issues, especially in disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately impacted by truck traffic and related diesel emissions. This is a public health issue, and policymakers are right to prioritize this sector.
Your background was spent working on the light duty passenger vehicle side of the equation and now you are in the commercial truck sector, what are some comparisons you can make from your previous role that can translate to the commercial truck sector and what are some differences that could not be carried over?
The focus for light duty has been on home access, key long-dwell destinations, and high-power charging along highway corridors to allow for long-distance trips that play an outsized role in vehicle purchase decisions.
Commercial truck electrification is a decade behind the passenger vehicle sector in terms of market maturity, but it’s a dramatic oversimplification to focus just on the timeline and assume the truck market will follow the same path. There are several key differences that will create both challenges and opportunities:
Most charging for passenger vehicles happens at home, and much of that leverages either standard outlets that already exist in garages, or the installation of relatively low cost L2 chargers. Commercial truck fleets won’t have this low cost, often pre-existing “home” charging option to kickstart the market – making infrastructure deployment even more of a threshold issue.
The infrastructure challenge is further compounded for commercial fleets when you consider the fact that they are more likely to run into barriers when looking to install charging, simply because these charging projects are bigger, higher powered, and more complex.
Despite all of these differences, there are many lessons learned from light duty charger deployment that are relevant as we look at trucks. Electricity rates are one obvious example – utility demand charges can make or break the business case for high-power charging projects. There are now examples of rates that really enable electrification, but they are not yet widespread. Development timelines and bottlenecks are another area where we have learned a lot. There is a clear need to streamline permitting and update zoning to enable faster project development, and we also need to look at modernizing utility and regulatory processes around grid upgrades and site energization. The solutions will have to be adapted somewhat for heavy duty charging, but we can and should build on the lessons learned in light duty. We are not starting from scratch here.
So how should we be thinking about infrastructure for truck fleets, and where does EV Realty fit in?
Infrastructure, or lack thereof, is frequently cited as the primary barrier to truck electrification. While the truth is much more complicated and things like truck costs remain top-of-mind for fleets, infrastructure is undeniably a “must-have.” We need to figure out how to roll out the infrastructure in parallel with the vehicles. And we need to be really thoughtful in how, when, and where we deploy charging to ensure it enables the market and puts the industry on a path to self-sustainability.
The National Zero Emission Freight Corridor Strategy lays out a thoughtful, phased vision for infrastructure rollout starting with hubs and moving out from there along key corridors. This sequencing makes sense and aligns with current and future vehicle capabilities by prioritizing shorter-haul applications before moving to longer distance trucking. The White House hosted an event earlier this year highlighting private sector leaders – including EV Realty – bringing this strategy to life.
Within the freight hubs, there will be a variety of solutions. Some fleets will be able to invest in private, behind-the-fence charging at their facilities. But not every fleet will be able to (or want to) do this all on-site. They may not own their sites or may have space or grid constraints, or may just not want to take a project like this on. It’s complex! Off-site, multi-fleet depots are an important part of the solution for many fleets.
This is where EV Realty comes in – our charging depots provide a much-needed, turnkey solution, starting in the freight hubs identified in the federal strategy. Focusing on sites with access to power lets us do this relatively quickly and at lower cost than if we had to wait for utility upgrades. Our ability to move quickly and serve multiple fleets should catalyze fleet electrification by creating a simple and sustainable path forward for fleets of all sizes.
Building all of this infrastructure sounds expensive – who pays for all this? How can policymakers help?
It’s true – transformative change requires investment! Direct public investment through grants and rebates will be an important part of the solution, but definitely not the whole story. Utility investment is also essential, but there is understandable concern around near-term electricity rates and affordability. Fortunately there is a lot of private capital coming into the space, and policymakers have the ability to attract a lot more.
For example, regulators in California and Washington are looking at how to use their states’ respective clean fuels programs to incentivize truck charging deployment by providing targeted infrastructure credits that directly addresses the “chicken or egg” problem by providing some certainty around revenue as truck deployment ramps up. Done right, this policy alone could unleash billions in private sector investment, without requiring any direct public investment.
Electric utilities have also been making big investments in infrastructure, as they should, but we have to continue to be smart in how we go about it. The price of electricity continues to climb and there is increasing pushback on utility investments in electrification as a result. We need to be thoughtful in where we place large-scale charging projects in order to maximize the utilization of existing grid capacity. This approach, which is central to EV Realty’s strategy, avoids the need for costly utility upgrades and keeps costs down for all of us.
To be clear, there is still a need for incentive funding and targeted utility investments to deploy charging at the pace and scale needed. But we need to do this right. We urge policymakers to stretch scarce dollars by focusing on the basics. Target those segments of the market most “ready” to electrify such as short haul freight. And minimize costs and delays by prioritizing investment in locations with existing grid capacity. Too often, we are seeing well-intentioned incentive programs that actually increase total project costs and add to delays by, for example, pushing developers to include on-site generation or to site projects in locations that trigger grid upgrades. We, collectively, need to be efficient, strategic, and cost-conscious in our approach if we want to enable this industry to scale.
How long does it take to build one of these depots? How can we speed that up?
These are big projects with many moving parts, and they can take a long time to build.
Every project is different, but there are a few major sticking points that I think about from a policy perspective.
For example, the time it takes to get a permit can be surprisingly long and unpredictable, with dramatic variation from one city to the next. Zoning challenges can also create uncertainty. We need to find those cities doing this right and disseminate best practices to help bring others along.
Utility timelines and processes can also be slow and unpredictable. There’s work underway now at the CA Public Utilities Commission to shorten and standardize some of these timelines so that projects aren’t overly delayed waiting for things like utility engineering studies or electrical construction. But there’s still work to do.
The multi-year delays you might hear about derailing projects or dramatically pushing back opening dates usually stem from major utility upgrades when someone is trying to build a large charging project in a location that doesn’t have sufficient grid capacity. Major utility upgrades can take a very, very long time. Our approach to what we call “smart siting” – focusing on locations with existing capacity – avoids these really long and expensive upgrades.
What has allowed California to have a head start on other states in electrifying transportation?
California has been really proactive in enacting a comprehensive suite of policies – both carrots and sticks – to accelerate electrification.
Regulations like the Advanced Clean Trucks and Advanced Clean Fleets rules – the “stick” in this case – send clear market signals to truck manufacturers, fleets, and infrastructure developers about where we need to go.
These regulations absolutely cannot stand on their own. “Carrots” are also needed to support the transition. The truck purchase incentives, charger rebates, and more innovative policies such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard all help drive investment and basically make the math work for electrification. These sorts of incentives will continue to be vitally important in the coming years.
Finally, California is working hard to tackle some of the behind the scenes issues that can really help or hinder investment. Much of this is in the utility space. Electricity rate structures that are designed for EV charging can really help the economics of charging projects. Accelerated utility energization timelines and streamlined permitting processes can reduce risk and minimize costly project delays. Good, accurate, up-to-date data on grid capacity can help with project siting and planning decisions. Proactive grid investments by utilities can eliminate bottlenecks and help plan for the future.
There is no magic bullet, but California has been doing all of this and more, and this is a big part of why EV Realty is building our first sites in California.
Fortunately, other states are active on some of these fronts as well. As we consider where to go next, progress on some of these fronts will help us prioritize.
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