The US Cannot Support Big EV Trucks.
The EPA rolled out its “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles—Phase 3.” The plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from large trucks and buses. For this to work, many big truck and bus engines must be electric, although some could be hydrogen. The problem is insufficient energy to charge these vehicles’ huge batteries.
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The New York Times reports, “The Environmental Protection Agency projects the new rule could mean that 25 percent of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest on the road, and 40 percent of medium-size trucks, like box trucks and landscaping vehicles, could be nonpolluting by 2032.” Big trucks cause about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions by American vehicles, although they are only a tiny fraction of the overall vehicle count.
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These goals will not be met, at least in the near term, because it takes an immense amount of electricity to charge a large truck battery. The recently published Electric Highway Study reports, “On the busiest hours of the year, a highway fast-charging site could require the same amount of electricity as a sports stadium or even a small town.”
Add the EV truck demand to new challenges to the grid and the electricity supply in general created by AI and Bitcoin mining. Among the three, a massive increase in supply will be required. And if this can be done, it will require more use of oil and coal, which offsets the goal of EV-powered trucks,
