California Air Resources Board

Advanced Technology Demonstration and Pilot Projects

South Coast Air Quality Management District

August 2021 – March 2025

Project Details:

With the increased availability of commercial, CARB certified Class 8 battery electric trucks (BETs), there is greater interest in learning about the feasibility of large scale truck deployments at a single fleet. JETSI is one of the first pilot projects to be funded in California which will provide fleets with guidance and lessons learned to successfully carry off a large scale 50 BET and infrastructure deployment and enable more fleets to transition to zero emission technologies. BETs in this project will have a minimum daily range of at least 150 – 200 miles on a single charge and most trucks will be in drayage service, with some in short regional haul service. Ancillary support services such as networking software for charger management, demand response, and fleet uptime and reliability, complete BET maintenance service plans, as well as solar and energy storage to offset demand charges, will enable fleets to utilize these trucks to meet revenue service needs.

South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) is leading a regional collaborative with the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC), Southern California Edison (SCE), Port of Long Beach, and Port of Los Angeles to deploy 100 battery-electric regional haul and drayage trucks. Fleet partners NFI will operate 50 trucks in drayage operations, and Schneider will operate 50 trucks in regional haul (30) and drayage (20) operations, as well as install 1 MW solar and 5 MWh battery energy storage at NFI.

Grantee:

South Coast Air Quality Management District

Partners:

Funding from Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC), Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, Southern California Edison, National Freight Industries (NFI), Schneider, Daimler, Volvo, Electric Power Research Institute, CALSTART, University of California Riverside, LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Coalition for Clean Air, California Energy Commission, Electrify Commercial, Power Electronics, Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), Rio Hondo College and San Bernardino Valley College.

Grant Amount

Vehicles/Equipment Funded

100 Commercial CARB certified Class 8 battery electric trucks (BETs) and infrastructure deployed at freight handling facilities:

• 50 BETs each at NFI (Ontario) and Schneider (South El Monte)
• 34 175/350 kW DC fast chargers at NFI and 16 175/350 kW DC fast chargers at Schneider
• 1 MW solar, 5 MWh battery energy storage, BET maintenance facility at NFI

Featured innovations:

• Multiple truck configurations to meet drayage/regional haul applications and range
• Increased energy density battery chemistry for later model year BETs
• Solar, energy storage, and second life batteries to mitigate grid impacts and energy costs
• Networked chargers with fleet management software
• EPRI to develop fleet uptime software to maximize charger utilization/uptime

Lessons Learned

• Coordination with utilities, cities, and equipment manufacturers on infrastructure deployment critical due to long lead times and required approvals
• Challenges in aligning infrastructure deployment with BET deliveries at fleets
• Phasing in construction activities to minimize disturbance to fleet activities

Status Updates

• CARB grant agreement executed, CEC grant agreement in process
• Execution of contracts with partners to follow
• Conducted site walks for Schneider infrastructure deployment with SCE; site walks at NFI to follow
• Develop ZEV workforce plan
• Partnership between fleets, OEMs, community colleges for BET/EVSE workforce training, college and internship opportunities
• Outreach to residents and stakeholders in disadvantaged communities to communicate technology and economic benefits
• UCR to develop eco-routing for BETs

Videos

• Project Overview Presentation