As the Tesla Semi goes into production, the company appears to have a healthy order book. Very healthy—just as we were digesting the news of large Semi orders from WattEV and Einride, we read that “a coalition of the world’s largest cargo-owning shippers” has placed an order for 2,500—the largest electric truck order to date in the US, and one that would nearly double the number of electric Class 8 trucks on US roads.

Who’s behind this coalition? The Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification (ZET SCALE) is a program jointly operated by two nonprofits: Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre. “By aggregating freight demand at a scale no single company could reach on its own, ZET SCALE is building a market for electric trucks that did not exist before,” says the alliance, adding that it has ambitions to order 10,000 trucks or even more.

ZET SCALE tells us that founding shippers include Microsoft and PepsiCo (which has been piloting Tesla Semis for some time). FreightWaves reports that the coalition includes at least 15 shippers, and adds IKEA, Brambles and Red Bull to the list.

“You can have good technology and still not have a market,” said Catalyst Mobility’s President and CEO, Michael Berube. “What is different about ZET SCALE is that the demand was organized so manufacturers could price at scale. That is how costs move, and that is how clean trucks leave the pilot phase.”

The concept is intriguing. By banding together, shippers could leapfrog two of the obstacles that are keeping them in the slow lane of electrification.

Source link