Trucking industry warns of product shortages, higher prices as New York pushes for electric semi-trucks

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Come January, manufacturers will be forced to produce more electric semi-trucks. If they don’t, they won’t be able to sell the traditional diesel ones. The problem is, no one wants to buy the electric rigs just yet.   

The Advanced Clean Truck regulations are set to go into effect in 2025. The requirement, adopted by the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2021, requires a percentage of new trucks sold in New York to be zero-emission vehicles. 

“Depending on the classification of the truck, somewhere between every one in every four to eight vehicles have to be zero-emission before you can get a waiver to sell the current diesel trucks,” explains Dan Penksa, Vice President of Kenworth Northeast.

“Dealers across the state will simply not survive the impact of the current ACT timeline,” says Kendra Hems, president of the Trucking Association of New York. “Not only does that affect the livelihood of hundreds of workers across the country, but it will significantly disrupt the supply chain. Without intervention, the ACT regulations will drive up costs and limit the trucking industry’s ability to deliver New Yorkers goods as efficiently and quickly as possible.”  

Penksa says while his team is able to sell electric trucks, there currently isn’t a market for them because of the cost, range and infrastructure issues.

“In today’s world, a tractor trailer only goes about 200 miles with a full charge, diesel tractors will go 600 miles a day,” he says.

For example: a truckload of groceries going from Rochester to Albany. Today, a driver can make it there and back in less than 10 hours. In an electric rig, a driver can get to about Utica before it needs a charge.

“He’d have to sit there for six to eight hours to charge the battery, at that time, these guys only get 10 hours of service. So, then he has to sleep overnight there, drive it to Albany unload his load and then do it all over again on the way home.”

Then, there’s the matter of whether there’s actually anywhere in public for these trucks to charge. Hems says there isn’t a single heavy-duty charging station on the Thruway. 

“If you can’t charge them, what are you going to do with them? You’re asking these people to buy these trucks, there’s no chargers out there, you can’t go more than 200 miles so, I’m not quite sure how the consumer is going to get their products,” Penksa says.

It appears the state is hearing the concerns of the trucking industry.

“We obviously work to really push the industry in a direction where we need them to be but we’re also flexible and we build in flexibilities to these rules that we have to make sure that we’re hearing from industry and adapting,” says Sean Mahar, Interim Commissioner of NYSDEC.

To resolve some of those issues, the state is looking at a three year compliance timeline for the industry to adapt.

“That’s where we will extend out that time frame to 2029 in order to provide that greater flexibility for engine manufacturers to come into compliance,” Mahar says.

Mahar adds he’s hoping by then, there will be a more robust charging infrastructure statewide too which may help companies get on board with the idea of buying zero-emission rigs.

Full statement from NYSDEC: 

“New York’s adoption of the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule is one of several steps the state is taking to advance the transition to a cleaner, healthier, and more efficient transportation future by cutting greenhouse gases, reducing harmful pollution, and promoting the growth of the green transportation industry. In addition to providing manufactures with significant flexibility in implementing the original rule, DEC will also be proposing new regulations that include more flexibilities and would not require compliance determinations until March 2029. This extended timeframe would provide medium-and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers additional time to achieve compliance, either by selling additional ZEVs or purchasing credits from other manufacturers.“

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