Volvo Trucks North America, Navistar and Daimler Truck North America are fierce competitors for marketshare, but when it comes to shrinking transportation's carbon footprint they're taking a "we're all in this together" approach.
The three North American brands – manufacturers of Volvo, Mack, International, Freightliner, Western Star and Rizon electric trucks, representing 70% of all new Class 6-8 truck sales in the U.S. – on Tuesday announced a collaboration: Powering America’s Commercial Transportation (PACT), a deal that calls for the three OEMs to focus on education and advocacy for accelerating the construction of national infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs).
The agreement stateside comes on the heels of one the trio finalized in Europe in 2022 that calls for Volvo Group, Daimler Truck, and Navistar parent Traton to jointly install and operate a high-performance public charging network for electric, heavy-duty, long-haul trucks and buses – an investment of nearly $550 million collectively headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Operating under the name Milence, the European joint venture calls for the installation and operation of at least 1,700 high-performance green energy charging points on and close to highways, as well as at logistic and destination points by 2027.
Navistar President and CEO Mathias Carlbaum noted that North American commercial vehicle customers need fast, reliable, affordable and convenient power to effectively deploy ZEV fleets at scale, and that kind of infrastructure is lacking on all fronts. According to the International Council on Clean Energy Transportation, nearly 600,000 chargers will be needed nationwide to accommodate a projected 1.1 million class 4-8 medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs anticipated to be deployed by 2030, which will consume 140,000 megawatts of electricity every day, equivalent to the monthly energy needs of 4.9 million American homes.
"The scale of infrastructure required for medium- and heavy-duty EV adoption is unprecedented," said Stephen Roy, president of Mack Trucks and chairman of Volvo Group North America.
Daimler Truck North America President and CEO John O'Leary noted that "the transition to zero-emission vehicles is stalling without the deployment of the needed charging infrastructure."
“We need some help,” O’Leary said during PACT’s launch at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.
