Penske races to zero-emissions with NASCAR delivery by eCascadia
Last weekend, Team Penske relied on longtime partner Freightliner's battery-electric eCascadia to haul its racecar trailer to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. The electric truck pulled the trailer from a Penske Truck Leasing location in Ontario, California, to the inaugural event as part of Freightliner’s primary sponsorship of the No. 2 car, a Ford Mustang driven by NASCAR rookie Austin Cindric. Both the truck and racecar shared navy blue paint job with electric blue piping.
“It’s been really exciting to see the driver excitement, the customer excitement, Penske’s excitement, and the acceptance of this truck,” said Mary Aufdemberg, DTNA’s GM of product strategy and market development.
The Class 8 BEV is part of the Penske fleet of EVs testing alternate-powered trucks in various real-world environments in advance of Freightliner's full production of the electric trucks.
The eCascadia used by Team Penske is part of the Freightliner Electric Innovation Fleet, which includes 20 battery-electric trucks in operation by Penske Truck Leasing and its customers. The fleet began operations in 2019 and was supported by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which focuses on improving air quality in the South Coast Basin of Southern California and partially funded the project.
Freightliner is already taking orders for the electric Class 8 truck to go into full production later this year. In 2023, the OEM plans to begin producing its first battery-electric medium-duty truck, the Freightliner eM2. Earlier this year, DTNA announced a partnership with energy providers to create a nationwide charging network for medium- and heavy-duty trucks powered by battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cells.
A longtime Freightliner partner, Penske began working with the OEM on its EV future in 2018. Together, the companies have logged nearly half a million miles in Penske’s fleet of 10 eCascadia day cabs and 10 eM2 box trucks, running regular routes around Southern California. In that time, Penske has built out vehicle charging infrastructure at six locations around these routes.
“Penske is really an enabler of transportation,” said Bill Combs, VP of sustainability at Penske. “We do have the Penske logistics arm that’s a large fleet—but we also have tens of thousands of customers that utilize our rental and lease vehicles every day. The goal was to get those 20 battery-electric vehicles in the hands of as many different types of customers running different types of operations as possible.”
As its EV program intends to grow, Penske plans to increase its charging network beyond Southern California, said Randolph P. Ryerson, VP of marketing, communications, and events, at Penske Transportation Solutions. With more than 850 locations across the U.S., Penske is already “prepping sites to be ready to add charging stations” beyond SoCal, he said.
Aufdemberg said fleet interest in EVs is growing outside SoCal, too. “There are a lot of fleets where sustainability is really important to them,” she explained. “They’re looking for e-vehicles, zero-emissions vehicles outside of California as well. We feel a pull from our customers. This is definitely a ‘technology-pull’—not just a ‘technology-push’ for sure.”
Combs sees the EV push for heavy- and medium-duty operations growing beyond the Golden State. Penske is already working with California fleets that run vehicles beyond that part of the country. As battery range and weight capacities improve in EVs, adoption rates will also increase, he added. “We definitely see getting this into other parts of the country as a major move for battery-electric freight transportation. As Penske, we want to get these in other parts of the country. We want real-world experience running these in different climates, different types of range.”
Penske’s road to zero-emissions
Penske’s latest collaboration with DTNA was far from the company’s first foray into real-world electric vehicle deployment. Penske has continued to adopt the latest zero-emission vehicles into their operations over the last few years.
Navistar and Penske Truck Leasing announced their continued commitment to a zero-emissions future with the delivery of the International eMV Series medium-duty truck—Navistar’s first U.S. delivery of the full battery electric medium-duty trucks from International—toward the end of 2021.
The delivery of the eMV Series reinforced the partnership of Navistar and Penske on the continued collaboration of various emerging technologies for the commercial vehicle industry.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Penske to take delivery of five of our earliest production eMV Series full battery electric trucks,” said Dan Kayser, group vice president, national accounts, Navistar. “This is truly a first step in our collective journey to grow the fleet of zero-emissions vehicles. These vehicles will be manufactured on the same assembly lines that currently produce International diesel-powered vehicles.”
As a validation partner, Penske operates these units at various locations throughout their footprint with the intent of evaluating the operation of electric trucks in real-world situations. The company is expanding its electrified fleet and evaluating important related technologies to support a zero-emission commercial vehicle future.
“We look forward to this continued collaboration with Navistar to progress and validate emerging industry technologies. Our organization is committed to evaluating and providing real-world feedback to further advance and serve our customers,” said Paul Rosa, senior vice president of procurement and fleet planning, Penske Truck Leasing.
“Whatever knowledge we can gain over the period of time that we're learning, we’ll share that with our customers, so they can make an educated decision as to when it's right for them,” Rosa said of implementing real-world electric vehicle solutions.
Rosa continued, stating that a focal point will be how EVs perform in different routes, and with different payloads and customers, as well as how topography impacts wear and battery life.
“We want to see a heavier payload with more hills to see what that does for the kilowatt consumption, and we want to go with a lighter weight and start and stop in the city,” Rosa explained.
Also late last year, Penske and Ford collaborated to evaluate and validate Ford’s 2022 E-Transit van's capabilities, driving experience, and charging strategy for specific applications, including rentals to small- and medium-size commercial businesses.
As part of the pilot program, Penske deployed an E-Transit van in the Reading, Pennsylvania, area. Penske’s long-term electric vehicle plans include adding electric vans throughout its wider network, including Southern California.
“We’re excited to collaborate with Ford Pro on the introduction and real-world testing of these new electric vehicles as the first truck rental and leasing company to do so,” said Art Vallely, president, Penske Truck Leasing. “We expect to see strong utilization and interest from customers making final-mile deliveries, regional deliveries, and eventually consumer use for smaller household moves.”
Penske Truck Leasing is also currently testing two 26' all-electric Ford F-650 trucks developed by Roush CleanTech. Power is supplied by Proterra's H Series battery system, which provides 165 kWh. The prototypes are being driven in California, and once more insights are revealed from those tests, Roush will start production on a second-generation version in Q2 of 2023. Penske will be the first customer.
Last summer, Penske Truck Leasing received two VNR Electric trucks from Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA), expanding its Southern California fleet of battery-electric Class 8 models. The Volvo VNR Electrics are used by two consumer retail companies, enabling both customers to gain firsthand insight into the many benefits of battery-electric trucks, the ease of recharging, and the ideal routes to deploy additional units in the future.
“With Penske Truck Leasing operating over 330,000 vehicles globally, Volvo Trucks sees this as an incredible opportunity to collaborate with their team to deploy zero tailpipe emission VNR Electrics and help other businesses achieve their sustainable transportation goals,” Peter Voorhoeve, president of VTNA, said. “Our companies share a common mission of providing top-tier, comprehensive service to help fleets maximize uptime and reliability. We look forward to seeing positive results with these first two battery-electric units and working alongside Penske to expand its VNR Electric fleet in the future.”
The Volvo VNR Electric trucks were deployed as part of the Volvo LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions) project—an innovative collaboration with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and 12 other organizations to develop a blueprint to successfully introduce battery-electric trucks and equipment into the market at scale.
In late 2020, Penske Truck Leasing placed a battery-electric eM2 from the Freightliner Innovation Fleet into service with Temco Logistics, a premier final-mile, white glove solutions provider delivering and installing appliances and home goods.
The Class 6 electric vehicle was used by Temco for delivery and installation of appliances to residential homes, providing service throughout Northern Orange County (Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Anaheim Hills) and the Inland Empire. The vehicle was making up to 18 stops per day, averaging 300 miles per week.
For fleets considering electrification, the time to start planning is now—even if it’s not yet feasible to put EVs to work within a current operation. While there is a lot of development still needed before nationwide adoption, keeping up with the planning and developments can make a future fleet successful. “If you’ve started earlier, you’ll have more experience in how to perfect that adoption of the technology,” Combs said.
A NASCAR driver can’t win a race in just one lap. It’s about sustained success on hundreds of trips around the track. When it comes to EV conversion, Aufdemberg said, “it’s about getting early into the learning curve so that you can be the quickest to the finish line when it comes to an optimal route and optimal operation.”
