California Air Resources Board

Advanced Technology Demonstration and Pilot Projects

South Coast Air Quality Management District

February 25, 2019 – September 30, 2022

Project Details:

South Coast AQMD partnered with Volvo Group North America to conduct a freight facility project that will realize commercialization and market penetration of heavy-duty battery electric trucks (BETs) in California and throughout North America. Volvo, a major heavy-duty OEM, will be partnering with some of the top fleet and industry leaders to reduce emissions at warehouses and freight facilities in disadvantaged communities using zero emission on- and off-road equipment and through warehouse energy efficiency improvements. This project is scalable and replicable to reduce emissions throughout the goods movement system. The project seeks to achieve emission reductions and deploy pre-commercial and commercial zero emission technologies, including Volvo’s North American market introduction of Class 8 BETs.

This project creates a zero emission goods movement system from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to four freight handling facilities in disadvantaged communities. This project deploys pre-commercial and commercial zero emission technologies, including the introduction of Volvo’s North American Class 8 battery electric truck. The project also includes charging infrastructure deployment, data collection, maintenance training, sales and service support, outreach, and fleet management software to accelerate commercialization of heavy-duty, battery electric technologies and increase fleet uptime.

Grantee:

South Coast Air Quality Management District

Partners:

CALSTART, DHE, Greenlots, NFI, POLA, POLB, Reach Out, Rio Hondo, San Bernardino Valley College, SCE, TEC Equipment, Trillium, UCR CE-CERT and Volvo.

Grant Amount

Vehicles/Equipment Funded

59 Pre-commercial and commercial Class 8 vehicles and infrastructure deployed at freight handling facilities:

• 30 Class 8 battery electric trucks (BETs) – LIGHTS (28 BETs), U.S. EPA CATI (2 BETs)
• 29 Off-road battery electric tractors, forklifts
• 56 Non-proprietary Level 2 and 50 kW and 150 kW DC fast chargers
• 864 kW solar at DHE, 640 kW solar at NFI

Featured innovations:

• Targeted BET platform in three market segments showcasing highest potential: drayage, regional distribution, short haul
• New Gen 3 lithium ion battery chemistry for >20% increased energy density and prevention of premature degradation
• Volvo Class 8 BET certified for commercial sale in California in December 2020
• 22 BET three year lease program for eight customer fleets starting in 2021
• Self-learning driveline control algorithms that optimize energy usage and range
• Web-based tools to improve BET uptime and maximize range
• Smart chargers integrated with intelligent vehicle telematics to balance BET, facility and utility grid
• Solar/storage deployed at DHE, solar/storage to deployed at NFI
• Integration of on-site solar and second-life batteries to improve resiliency, provide load management, offset TCO
• Established sales and service network support at TEC dealerships to minimize BET downtime
• Smart charging at fleets with submeters and enhanced reporting to assist tracking

Lessons Learned

• Pivoted to CCS1 connector based on customer needs for faster charging, more drayage trips/day
• Infrastructure deployment lead times longer, challenging to align with equipment delivery
• Challenges in utility interconnection approvals for integrated solar/energy storage at fleets due to different requirements

Status Updates

• Five additional BETs by June 2022 using LIGHTS funding
• Technology Showcase in August 2022 to demonstrate achievements and lessons learned

Videos