The Multibillion-Dollar Bet That Truckers Will Ditch Diesel for Electricity
Energy,Business,Electric Vehicles,Truckers,Trucking
The U.S.’s biggest commercial truck and engine builders are betting that the freight industry is ready to swap diesel fuel pumps for battery chargers.
The diesel engine maker Cummins and the truck builders Daimler Truck and Paccar plan to build a $2 billion battery factory in Mississippi to produce batteries for commercial trucks. The plant, which the companies will operate as a joint venture, is expected to begin producing battery cells in 2027.
The plant in Mississippi’s Marshall County, south of Memphis, Tenn., will be the nation’s largest dedicated to batteries for commercial vehicles, with initial output projected to be enough batteries annually to power more than 40,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
The investment is a big bet that the typically risk-averse trucking industry will start to convert rapidly to alternative power as new government standards for engine exhaust make it significantly more expensive and restrictive to buy and operate diesel trucks.
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