Dive Brief:
- XPO placed an order for electric trucks to use for California city deliveries this year, CEO Mario Harik said on a Q1 earnings call last week.
- Many are straight trucks, as larger, Class 8 vehicles face mileage and charging infrastructure challenges, Harik said on the call. The CEO did not share the number of expected trucks, or the make and model, and an XPO spokesperson declined to comment further.
- XPO is currently working locally on how the company can meet California mandates and EPA regulations requiring fleets to lower emissions, Harik told analysts.
Dive Insight:
XPO has made previous forays into EVs, testing the tech in its U.S. LTL and European fleets.
In a nine-month pilot with Daimler Trucks North America in 2021, XPO drivers drove EVs from the OEM’s Freightliner Electric Innovation and Customer Experience fleet in Oakland.
That Oakland pilot was partially funded by the Bay Area Quality Management District. XPO is a member of the Freightliner Electric Vehicle Council.
While XPO had hoped to shed its Europe operation along with the rest of its business units to become a pure-play LTL carrier, it has used its oversight of the fleet to pilot EVs across the Atlantic, too.
In January, the carrier purchased 100 Renault trucks following a pilot program with the OEM in France. Those vehicles were expected to be delivered between Q4 2022 and 2024.
The purchases come as governments in the U.S. and abroad advance efforts to make fleets zero-emission in the coming decades.
Last fall, the Biden Administration backed an international pledge to shift all medium- and heavy-duty truck sales to zero-emissions by 2040. And California last month adopted its Advanced Clean Trucks rule requiring 75% of Class 4-8 truck sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035, after the EPA cleared the way for the state ruling.
Separately in December, the EPA issued a rule strengthening heavy-duty truck emissions standards, beginning with model year 2027 vehicles.
