Despite all the road hazards ahead, North America’s electric vehicle parade continues to advance the transportation decarbonization cause.
Technology and market momentum can take a bow here: Electrification improvements in the former; bottom-line practicality in the latter.
The most recent sign of that headway in North America’s commercial trucking sector was April 22’s unveiling of a charging depot for electric trucks servicing the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.
The Ontario, California, facility is a joint project of North American supply chain company NFI Industries Inc. and Prologis Inc.’s (NYSE:PLD) Prologis Mobility charging-as-a-service platform.
According to an NFI-Prologis press release, the charging hub will service NFI’s fleet of 90 electric Class 8 trucks that haul goods in the San Pedro port complex, which is the world’s ninth-largest container shipping operation.
It’s another in a series of Prologis-driven commercial truck electrification initiatives.
Last April, the company opened another major recharging hub in Torrance, California. Its Denker Avenue depot, a collaboration with Maersk (CPH:MAERSK-B), the world’s second-largest container shipping company, can charge approximately 300 heavy-duty Class 8 trucks per day.
Prologis estimates that the Denker Avenue hub, which was completed in five months, eliminates approximately 70 tonnes of diesel truck carbon dioxide a day.
A month before the Denker Avenue hub’s launch, Sweden’s Einride opened its first U.S. electric truck Smartcharger Station in Lynwood, California. The facility, which is on the I-710 near the San Pedro port complex, can charge up to 200 trucks per day.
All three truck-charging hubs will help Southern California’s aim to eliminate diesel trucks from the San Pedro Bay port complex by 2035.
That is a commendable goal, especially in light of the efforts by America’s current anti-EV administration to stall decarbonization initiatives.
Price is another EV roadblock.
Electric trucks are more expensive. In B.C., an electric Class 8 would cost around $450,000 compared with $200,000 for its diesel counterpart.
Range limitations and recharging downtime in a competitive and narrow-margin industry are also significant barriers to entry.
The diesel trucking fraternity will also point out that trucks, which account for around 4% of vehicles in North America and move 70% of domestic freight tonnage, contribute nearly 50% of the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) in the U.S. through the diesel fuel taxes their owners pay. The HTF bankrolls highway infrastructure and maintenance projects.
That inequity needs to be addressed.
Meanwhile, technology and market demand are narrowing trucking’s EV/ICE capital cost gap, while operational practicalities and strategic electric truck deployment are improving the case for electrification investment.
Also, as Politico’s Power Switch recently pointed out, “truck manufacturing is a more international business than car making, and the companies have to respond in Europe and other jurisdictions that are serious about curbing climate change.”
Electric trucks are also quieter and easier to drive than their ICE counterparts. That should be a key consideration for trucking companies because North America’s commercial truck driver shortage is estimated at around 80,000 today and is projected to hit closer to 160,000 over the next five years. Attracting new drivers is going to take more than higher wages.
Vancouver’s RR Plett Trucking recently added two new battery-electric trucks to its 120-truck fleet. The company’s push to decarbonize its operations is part of the rationale, but the company also notes that electric trucks “provide a more stable cost structure due to lower fuel and maintenance costs.”
However, commercial truckers are not alone on Electric Avenue.
More car buyers are joining them as prices drop, and a wider range of models and price points are added to the market.
The U.S. tariff and trade war with the rest of the world is doing its best to discourage EV adoption, especially in America.
Meanwhile, B.C.’s NDP government has decided to pull the plug on the province’s EV rebate program. Its CleanBC Go Electric Vehicle Rebate Program will be paused starting May 15. Gone with the program will be up to $4,000 in rebates that promote EV sales in the province. The federal government paused its EV rebate program in January.
So, no surprise that the North American market share for new EVs dropped in March to just under 7%.
That is according to Cox Automotive’s most recent EV market monitor [https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/ev-market-monitor-march-2025/].
What is surprising, however, is that, according to the U.S.-based automotive services company’s numbers, year-over-year March sales volume for new EVs increased by 8.2% while Q1 2025 numbers show an overall 11.4% increase compared with Q1 2024.
Sales in March’s used EV market jumped 45% compared with March 2024; however, Cox noted that used EVs accounted for only 2% of the overall used vehicle market in the U.S.
Price remains an obstacle to entry in the U.S. Cox listed the average transaction price (ATP) for new electric vehicles at US$59,205. That was up 3.8% from February and 4.4% compared with March 2024. Its report added that the EV price premium over ICE vehicles increased to US$12,229.
The higher initial EV-buying cost is also one of the factors contributing to a decrease in the interest of non-EV owners in buying an EV for their next vehicle, according to a recent AutoTrader survey. The survey of Canadian car owners found that interest had declined from 68% of respondents in 2022 to 56% in 2023.
Still, initial outlay aside, annual EV operating and maintenance costs are 40% or more lower than their ICE counterparts. That’s how the maintenance mathematics adds up when your vehicle has 20 to 25 moving parts compared with 200 to 2,000.
The U.S. tariff war is working hard to eliminate more affordable Asian EV options from the North American market.
Its tariffs and the politically motivated domestic terrorism targeting Elon Musk’s Tesla [Nasdaq:TSLA] dealers and car owners are destroying America’s EV technology lead and the country’s world-leading EV company, which reported a 71% drop in profit in Q1 2025 compared with Q1 2024
But the EV revolution soldiers on.
The market will decide how fast it progresses along Electric Avenue. Battery technology, recharging infrastructure availability and mobility marketplace business case viability will determine the revolution’s speed limit.
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