Once again, I got to hang out with some really smart people. I was at the Argonne National Laboratory for the 21st Century Truck Partnership meeting on the battery needs of heavy-duty trucks. As a grown-up farm boy who wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, I am overwhelmed when I walk into a Department of Energy laboratory, a meeting of tens of thousands, and yep, even the White House.
This time, I was one of about 150 people, all of whom are dedicated and working on how to fast charge long-haul truck batteries. Speakers came from industry, government laboratories, and academia.
The first day of the two-day event focused on the state-of-the-art deployment of battery-electric trucks and what is needed to maximize their use, while the second day focused on battery chemistry and design solutions to meet the industry demands.
I gave a presentation about Run on Less-Electric Depot, which included showing videos, providing detailed metrics from the Run, sharing stories from the Run, and sharing some anecdotes about what I learned during the interviews leading up to the Run and from the post-Run analysis. People at the meeting were interested in the details of the Run and the key takeaways.
Both Paccar and Volvo had sessions that provided an overview of their SuperTruck 3 projects. These two teams are working on battery-electric vehicles in long-haul applications. What they were able to share was interesting and informative. Calstart also provided its perspective, and representatives from Walmart and Martin-Brower offered the fleet perspective.
These and other presentations set the stage for an afternoon of breakout sessions that covered battery end-of-life targets, battery performance and life testing protocols, and cell and pack safety requirements.
See also: NPTC partners with NACFE and Clean Freight Coalition
Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the second day of the meeting, but Ari Kahn of RMI told me there was another impressive array of speakers and topics, again focusing on the battery, battery innovations, and fast charging.
What I liked about this meeting was the same thing I liked about the White House Roundtable on Zero-Emission Freight Infrastructure—the small working groups.
In these breakout sessions, we all roll up our sleeves and work on finding practical ways to address the various challenges the trucking industry faces as it moves to a clean future. These are not pie-in-the-sky discussions. They are attempts to determine a realistic way to make progress on these very big challenges in front of us. Every time we have meetings like this, we come away with a clearer idea of what needs to be done.
In this case, we zeroed in on the need to be able to fast-charge truck batteries. This is a real-world problem that fleets and truck builders are facing and one of the things holding adoption back.
While I can talk big picture and strategy as well as the next guy, I grew up on a farm and have an affinity for the practical and finding ways to “get it done.” Meetings such as the 21st Century Truck Partnership on the battery needs of heavy-duty trucks and the White House Roundtable on Zero-Emission Freight Infrastructure make the farm boy in me very happy.
