With the futuristic-looking concept truck, Daimler is giving a preview of its future truck flagship with a range of more than 1000 kilometers for the first time.
(Photo: http://media.daimler.com)
new York The California Air Resources Board (CARB) on Thursday held the final hearing on a 2036 ban on diesel trucks. CARB wants to vote on the ban as early as Friday. Approval is expected. The Handelsblatt learned this from three people familiar with the process.
According to the US transport industry, the decision marks a turning point for the trucking industry. The extent of the new regulation is unprecedented. Nervousness is high among both truck manufacturers and freight forwarders.
California is considered the lead market for the USA. The decisions of the supervisory authorities in the world’s fifth-largest economy also have a global signal effect. If the CARB Council votes in favor of the ban, the purchase of new diesel trucks would be banned from 2036. By 2042, practically all trucks in the state would have to be converted to zero-emission vehicles, i.e. to electric or hydrogen drives. CARB initially did not respond to a Handelsblatt request.
As early as August 2022, CARB issued a regulation that stipulates that truck manufacturers must offer an increasing number of emission-free light commercial vehicles every year starting in the 2026 model year. In 2026 their share is expected to increase to 35 percent, in 2030 to 68 percent and in 2035 to 100 percent.
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With the change now under discussion, the so-called “Advanced Clean Fleets” regulation (ACF), these rules would be significantly tightened again. From 2036, large freight forwarders would have no other option than to procure emission-free vehicles.
“The requirement to sell 100 percent zero-emission vehicles has been brought forward to 2036 from the original start date of 2040. This change means that all new vehicles sold in California must be zero-emissions by 2036.
“The most aggressive regulations of its kind”
CARB had already decided on Thursday to phase out heavy diesel locomotives. “These are the most aggressive regulations of their kind,” Berkeley law professor Ethan Elkind told the San Francisco Chronicle about railroad regulation. The new regulation of the truck market, which is due for Friday, goes even further.
According to Sydney Vergis, CARB’s director of pollution in the transportation sector, the proposed truck regulation aims to put California at the forefront of the world. “This rule is the first of its kind. It gives the industry clarity about where California is going,” Vergis said. The government in Sacramento wants to make the state carbon neutral by 2045.
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There are exceptions for smaller haulage companies and vehicles as well as for existing fleets. Multi-year transitional regulations apply to these. There are also exceptions if companies can prove that there are no available alternatives to diesel trucks for their intended purpose.
The planned new regulation is causing unrest in the American truck industry. Large freight forwarders in particular fear that there will be neither adequate and affordable zero-emission trucks nor a corresponding charging infrastructure in the coming years.
Daimler Truck North America, the largest truck manufacturer in the USA, does not want to comment on the new regulation on request. In company circles it is said that suitable trucks will be available by the deadline. However, the charging infrastructure must keep pace. Shares in hydrogen companies and truck makers like Plug Power and Nikola rose sharply on Thursday.
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