According to the American Trucking Organization, a new, clean-diesel long-haul truck typically costs around $180,000. A comparable battery-electric truck costs up to $480,000. That’s about a $300,000 difference – and far too expensive for the majority of truckers. More than 95% of trucking companies operate with ten trucks or less.

Today, a clean diesel truck can spend 15 minutes fueling anywhere in the country and then travel about 1,200 miles before refueling. In contrast, today’s long-haul battery-electric trucks have a range of about 150-330 miles and can take up to 10 hours to charge.

Weight factors are another problem. Electric trucks, which run on two 8,000-lb. lithium-ion batteries are far heavier than their clean-diesel counterparts. Since trucks are subject to strict federal weight limits, mandating battery-electric transportation will decrease the payload of each truck, putting more trucks on the road and increasing traffic congestion.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that American and European electric truck makers rely heavily on Chinese battery makers. China dominates the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) market, so it produces the vast majority of batteries for trucks. Truck makers in the U.S. and Europe are slow to catch up – they have just begun to build or are announcing investments in new production facilities for heavy-duty battery packs.