John, what is the current focus of your company’s activities in the truck equipment industry and fleet?
CALSTART is a national not for profit organization based in California. We have about one hundred and fifty member companies. We work nationwide. A big part of our membership is in the clean truck segment. We are working hard on a daily basis to give our member companies the resources that they need to be successful selling clean truck technology. We also have not only good suppliers and manufacturers who are members, but a lot of very impressive fleets including Pepsi, Coca Cola, FedEx, and UPS that are leaders in using clean truck technology.
We were pleased this year to be partnered with the NTEA in hosting the third annual Green Truck Summit in Indianapolis. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the latest in clean and efficient work truck technology and products.
What is your assessment of the industry right now? What do you see moving forward?
What I have seen is a real turning point. We probably spent the first twenty years of our organization’s history working with companies to develop product; in a sense we were sort of in a prolonged prototype phase. Now, I think everybody is getting much more serious about implementation. There is great product out there from a wide array of different fuels – propane, electricity, natural gas – and the question is … how do we deploy those trucks? How do we get them out there accepted by the market in large numbers?
The EPA and NHTSA came out with some new standards that are going to be taking effect in 2014. How does that affect CALSTART?
We were very pleased that the Obama Administration came forward with both the EPA and NHTSA to develop the first greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for the truck industry. We think this first set of standards that takes place for 2014-2018 model years will have some impact on the heavier trucks, class eight trucks, and some impact on some of the smaller class two trucks – the pick-up trucks and vans. It won’t have a big impact on the work truck segment. However, the EPA and NHTSA are already working and already starting to plan for the next set of regulations: 2019-2025.
We do expect that those regulations will encourage the development and a greater use of advanced technologies. We will be working with industry, the EPA, and NHTSA to help develop those regulations and I view those, really, as an opportunity to help grow the green truck segment and to see this market expand.
As far as the green and environmental programs and initiatives that are underway, what does CALSTART see in the present time about that industry and how it is changing?
With the product now available, we have the potential to be entering the “hockey stick” phase of growth and begin seeing some serious growth in technologies and systems that displace oil. We are seeing propane and natural gas vehicles come out, both compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas. Growth in the gaseous fuel market is being driven by their low cost relative to diesel.
One of the things that has really changed here are just the fundamental economics. The Energy Information Administration expects diesel prices to remain higher than gasoline and diesel. We are probably in a new world where $80 a barrel is the floor. At that price, the economics for gaseous fuels are much improved. At that price, the hybrid business case is also starting to improve.
Meanwhile, electric drive technology is really coming along and we are seeing an expansion and increasing variety of plug-in trucks. There will be all electric trucks, as well as range extending trucks similar to the Chevy Volt in the passenger car market. In short, there are a lot of options and more work is required on the part of the fleets to find the right choice for their duty cycle(s).
With increasing concern about the long term price trend and volatility of the world oil market, I am very bullish on the outlook for technologies that either allows truckers to increase efficiency and reduce their oil consumption, or ones that allow them to directly displace oil. At next year’s Green Truck Summit, I expect that there will be an even larger number of green truck success stories to talk about.
BIO
John Boesel is the President and CEO of CALSTART, an organization dedicated to the growth of the clean transportation technology industry. Prior to joining CALSTART, John worked as a legislative aide in the California State Assembly as well as being a banker for Wells Fargo. John has an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford University. [email protected]
