Schneider National reports its fleet of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) recently eclipsed 1 million zero-emission miles while hauling customer freight.
The multimodal transportation provider currently operates one of the largest BEV fleets in North America at its Southern California intermodal operations center, with close to 100 Freightliner eCascadias and a charging depot roughly half the size of a football field. Since first hitting the road in January, Schneider’s electric trucks have avoided approximately 3.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the carrier said.
The fleet includes 92 battery-electric trucks and two electric yard spotters.
“We are driven by our commitment to sustainability and innovation to be one of the first carriers to embrace electric as a powerful solution for hauling freight,” Mark Rourke, Schneider president and CEO, said in a news release. “We believe in a future where clean technology helps transform the way we move goods and reduces our environmental footprint while still delivering on our promises of efficiency and reliability for customers.
“This milestone is just the first of many.”
Schneider’s electric trucks already are hauling for major brands, including Goodyear and Frito-Lay North America, the company added.
“Frito-Lay’s strides in eliminating Scope 3 emissions were exemplified this year through our first-ever third-party electric vehicle shipment with Schneider,” said David Allen, PepsiCo Foods North America vice president and chief sustainability officer. “As the first to contract transport on Schneider’s eCascadia fleet, our collaboration serves as a blueprint for how Frito-Lay and PepsiCo are working alongside our transportation partners to build a sustainable food system and reach our PepsiCo Positive net-zero emissions goal by 2040.”
Schneider worked alongside Freightliner’s parent company, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), as the eCascadia evolved, piloting a truck for six months in 2020-2021 through the Freightliner Customer Experience Fleet. Now, Schneider is the first company to achieve 1 million zero-emission miles with the eCascadia.
“Three years ago, we tested the Freightliner eCascadia with Schneider in real-world test applications, and now they have already delivered goods on 1 million fully electric miles with their electric fleet. This is an important milestone, not just for Schneider, but for the industry as a whole," said David Carson, DTNA senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Not only that, but clean transportation in the form of zero-emission trucks on the road brings our society closer to a better future.”
The South El Monte charging site features 16 350 kW dual-corded dispensers, allowing the carrier to charge 32 trucks simultaneously. The eCascadias achieve an 80% charge within 90 minutes and have a typical driving range of up to approximately 220 miles, the companies said.
Funding for 50 of Schneider’s 92 eCascadias was made possible by the Joint Electric Truck Scaling Initiative (JETSI), the first battery-electric truck project jointly funded by the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission.
For the additional 42 trucks outside JETSI, five are jointly funded by the U.S. EPA FY18 Targeted Airshed Grant and Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP), seven are funded by the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, and 30 trucks are funded by HVIP.