Electric truck conversion will double operational costs, report reveals

May 10, 2024

Tyson Fisher

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Amid government efforts to push adoption of electric trucks, a new white paper released by Ryder reveals massive costs of converting fleets to electric will significantly raise overall inflation.

In a new report, Ryder compared the costs associated with operating a diesel truck to costs operating an electric truck. The megacarrier that manages nearly 260,000 commercial vehicles found converting to electric will double its Class 8 vehicle operating costs.

Using averages from its large database, Ryder’s Class 8 comparison assumes the following for diesel trucks:

  • 100- to 500-mile haul range
  • One to two trips per day
  • 109,000 miles annually
  • 2 truck drivers per truck
  • 29,000-pound average payload

With today’s technology, electric trucks’ maximum payload is 22,000 pounds. Considering a reduced payload – combined with charging and delivery times – it will take nearly two electric trucks and more than two truck drivers to match the production output of one diesel truck.

When it comes to dollars and cents, that equals hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to replace just one diesel truck. The bulk of that cost increase is for the truck alone.

Ryder calculated a 500% increase in monthly payments for an equivalent electric truck, totaling more than $200,000 a year.

Other significant cost increases come in the form of labor (76% or nearly $71,000), other personnel costs (74% or more than $30,000) and other operating costs (87% or more than $47,000). Other personnel costs include workers comp, paid time off and payroll tax. Other operating costs include insurance and general/administrative expenses. Fleets also will need to invest an additional $8,000 a year for chargers, a cost that doesn’t even exist for diesel trucks.

Ryder then compared the difference in operating costs in California and Georgia. Although operating a truck is more expensive in California, the percentage increase of costs caused by converting to electric trucks is larger in Georgia. This is mostly due to the large difference in fuel prices. Since diesel is much cheaper in Georgia, fleet owners will not realize the savings in fuel costs like fleets in California will.

Cost of electric trucks in Georgia chart

Costs of electric truck conversion are less severe for Class 4 and 6 trucks. Larger savings in maintenance and energy costs offset relatively modest increases in labor and equipment costs for light-duty transit vans, netting a 5% ($8,000/year) cost increase in Georgia. For medium-haul straight trucks, converting to electric trucks will cost about $50,000 more a year, an increase of about 25%. For a mixed fleet of 25 vehicles (11 vans, 4 straight trucks and 10 tractors), the annual cost increase is 56% in California ($3.4 million) and 67% in Georgia ($3.6 million).

With tractor-trailer operational costs more than doubling in some regions and mixed fleet operations seeing a two-thirds increase, shipping costs would skyrocket if trucking companies converted to electric trucks today.

Those costs, of course, would be passed down to consumers. In fact, Ryder estimates the costs of electric trucks under current conditions would add up to 1% to overall inflation.

Those estimates may be generous. Ryder’s analysis assumes accessibility and use of the fastest electric truck chargers. However, as the white paper notes, the fast-charging infrastructure is not yet built out. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are only 254 charging ports at 84 public charging stations for heavy-duty trucks. Only 14 ports are DC fast chargers.

The International Council on Clean Transportation estimates that nearly 600,000 chargers will be needed by 2030 in order to accommodate the more than 1 million Class 4-8 electric trucks anticipated to be deployed by then. In March, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation released its four-phase plan to create a charging and hydrogen-fueling infrastructure for zero-emission trucks. That national charging network will not be complete until between 2035 and 2040.

Electric truck mandate

Ryder’s report comes shortly after the federal government strengthened truck and passenger vehicle emission standards in what some Congress members call an “EV mandate.”

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency published a new rule that will require 25% of new sleeper-cab trucks to be zero-emission by 2032. For other trucks, that percentage increases to 60%.

On May 1, Republicans introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to dismantle the new truck emission rule. During a press conference, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Ark., read a statement from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association condemning the rule.

“Small-business truckers make up 96% of trucking and could be regulated out of existence if the EPA’s misguided mandate comes into effect,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in the statement. “This could have devastating effects on the reliability of America’s supply chain and ultimately on the cost and availability of consumer goods. Local mom-and-pop trucking businesses would be suffocated by the sheer cost and operational challenges of effectively mandating EV trucks.”

OOIDA encourages stakeholders to urge their lawmakers to support the resolutions by going to FightingForTruckers.com. LL