NFI INDUSTRIES

Truck Tech: Startup strategies edition

Truck Tech logo on blue background

The ongoing shake-up at TuSimple suggests a co-founder’s impatience. Hyliion Holdings is already benefiting from support by an outsized rival. Plus, a war of press releases over reducing emissions and a plea for autonomous truck testing in California.

TuSimple intrigue

The shake-up at TuSimple that began in March has developed into a full-on house cleaning. Most notable is the departure of Pat Dillion. His Wall Street background brought investor relations credibility to the autonomous trucking...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-tech-startup-strategies-edition

Embark autonomous and BYD electric trucks demo the future

Light blue BYD cabover in foreground. Blue Embark autonous truck in background preparing for a drop and hook of a trailer of HP Inc. computer printers.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Inside a gated parking lot adjacent to a metal scrap business and surrounded by fully grown palm trees, a demonstration of the future of drayage for autonomous trucks played out on a partly cloudy spring morning.

Autonomous software developer Embark Trucks brought one of its Peterbilt 579 sleeper cabs equipped for a supervised run to the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Arizona. A 53-foot trailer with a half-load of HP Inc. printers arrived in near silence except a toot of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/embark-autonomous-and-byd-electric-trucks-demo-the-future

Truck Tech: ACTing up edition

The Advanced Clean Transportation Expo nearly doubled attendance from just eight months ago and the conversion of diesel trucks new and old to batteries and fuel cells emerged as an undeclared theme. Also, some evidence that in the still early days of Class 8 electric trucks, driving range matters more than battery weight.

An electric trucks blowout in Long Beach

Last August, the ACT Expo was the first, albeit heavily masked, in-person industry conference to see a significant turnout. In a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/electric-trucks-dominate-act-expo

Electric truck charging: Can infrastructure keep pace with demand?

Boosted by billions of dollars for electrification, the rapidly advancing market for battery-powered commercial trucks will soon learn whether there is enough juice to begin scaling a transformation from diesel to zero tailpipe emission electric transport.

It doesn’t look good.

“We’ve got to worry about supply and demand, and we’ve got to make sure that all these things come together, and that means like now. The race is on right now,” Britta Gross, managing director of the Carbon Free Mobility...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/electric-truck-charging-can-infrastructure-keep-pace-with-demand

How to be inclusive in four not-so-easy steps

On Monday, nonprofit association Women in Trucking (WIT) announced its annual Top Companies for Women to Work For in Transportation.

The list showcases companies that took actions to not only increase the number of women in their organizations but retain and develop them into leaders as well. 

Transportation companies are judged and voted on by fellow Women in Trucking members in areas including corporate cultures, compensation, benefits, professional development and career advancements.

A recent...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-to-be-inclusive-in-four-not-so-easy-steps

Daimler’s electric trucks cross 1 million real-world driving miles

Daimler Trucks North America has recorded more than 1 million miles of real-world driving in its Class 8 and Class 6 electric trucks, letting fleets try them out in the hopes that orders will follow.

Separately, competitor Volvo Trucks on Wednesday announced its largest order to date, 100 FM Electric trucks in Europe. Volvo has delivered Class 8 VNR Electric models in California, New York and Texas.

Daimler, which had more than 40 electric trucks in evaluation fleets with NFI Industries and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/daimlers-electric-trucks-cross-1-million-real-world-driving-miles

Truck Talk: Tasty leftovers edition

This week’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo expounded on two major electrification themes: the higher power and faster infrastructure critical to speed the adoption of battery-powered trucks, and the more rapid arrival of hydrogen-powered fuel cells, once laughed off as a science project always 10 years away.

Running a live conference during a resurgent pandemic

In Long Beach, California, this week, the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo managed to pull off a live event even as rising...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-talk-tasty-leftovers-edition

Nikola licenses Bosch fuel cells for module assembly in Arizona

Nikola Corp. is going all-in on hydrogen fuel cells with Bosch Group, licensing the German supplier’s technology to assemble modules for Class 7 and Class 8 heavy-duty electric trucks at its new plant in the Arizona desert.

The agreements cast doubt on the last vestige of a memorandum of understanding for Nikola (NASDAQ: NKLA) to possibly use fuel cell technology from General Motors.

“We evaluated all the options and are launching our vehicles with the fuel cell modules from this agreement,” a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nikola-licenses-bosch-fuel-cells-for-module-assembly-in-arizona

ACT Expo: NFI installing super-fast chargers for Southern California electric fleet

Freightliner eCascadia charging

LONG BEACH, Calif. — NFI Industries, a leader in helping manufacturers test their battery-electric Class 8 trucks, is investing nearly half of a total $38 million to create the largest ultrafast-charging electric installation in the U.S.

Working with Electrify America, a $2 billion entity created by Volkswagen as part of billions in fines and settlements paid in the aftermath of its Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal, NFI will install 34 direct current (DC) fast-chargers in Ontario,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/act-expo-nfi-electrifying-southern-california-drayage-fleet-by-2023

ACT Expo: California subsidies make battery-electric trucks a sweet fleet deal

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Schneider National Inc. liked its experience with one Freightliner eCascadia so much that it has ordered 50 of the battery-electric trucks, the biggest single purchase of the zero-tailpipe-emission tractors to date.

The Green Bay, Wisconsin-based for-hire carrier is getting a sweet deal.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) are paying most of the $27 million cost of the Joint Electric Truck Scaling Initiative (JETSI). Announced...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/act-expo-california-subsidies-make-battery-electric-trucks-a-sweet-fleet-deal

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