CALSTART's Global Commercial Vehicle Drive to Zero program (Drive to Zero) has launched an online tool aimed at cataloging models of current and upcoming zero-emission commercial trucks, buses and off-road equipment.
The publicly available platform, the Zero-Emission Technology Inventory (ZETI) tool, creates a foundation for better understanding this developing technology segment. Drive to Zero plans to expand the tool in the coming months into a global index of commercially available zero-emission commercial vehicles.
“This sector is developing quickly and fleets as well as policymakers, cities, investors and manufacturers need to understand what is truly available and what is in the real pipeline,” said Bill Van Amburg, executive vice president of CALSTART. “We want to provide open access to information about these vehicles and eventually provide a regional picture of the sector so global fleets can grow smarter, investors can get a clearer picture and policymakers can draft incentives or rules to plan around technologies that are both already out there and are coming soon."
In addition to global vehicle availability information, ZETI provides users with granular data for current and known future offerings including weight/class, estimated payload/passenger capacity, driving range and energy storage capacity. A timeline feature offers users a sneak peek at new model availability data indicating where and when new models will debut on a commercial scale. Drive to Zero’s Global Director Dr. Cristiano Façanha unveiled the tool at the Cities Taking Freight Action urban freight forum in Toronto, Canada, organized by the Pembina Institute.
“Through Drive to Zero, we are working to build a network of globally connected urban centers where state-of-the-art medium and heavy-duty technologies, along with their economic, clean air and climate benefits are the norm, rather than the exception,” said Façanha. “Our partners made clear that in order to realize our vision as quickly as possible, we need tools like ZETI to tell us where we are today and what will be coming in the near future.”
Drive to Zero is designed to catalyze the growth of markets for zero- and near-zero-emission trucks, buses and off-road vehicles. It unites key regions of change, along with leading manufacturers and fleet users, to collaboratively speed development and adoption through policies, financial incentives, infrastructure investments and pilot projects that support early market success and create conditions for organic growth.
CALSTART, a clean transportation industry accelerator, launched Drive to Zero in 2018. Since then, industry leaders have agreed to work collaboratively to achieve Drive to Zero’s goal to drive market viability for the zero-emission commercial vehicle sector in key applications and regions by 2025 and achieve full market penetration by 2040. A list of Drive to Zero pledge signatories can be found on CALSTART's website.
The Drive to Zero program is built on a technology strategy developed by CALSTART and the California Air Resources Board, called the beachhead strategy, that identifies the commercial vehicle market segments, mostly in urban and return-to-base operations, where zero- and near-zero technology is likely to succeed first. Those early successes drive pathways into new segments where the technology can flourish next, according to CALSTART.
