Velocity Truck Rental & Leasing is on a mission to transform the future of electromobility. Here’s how.

Velocity Truck Rental & Leasing is on a mission to transform the future of electromobility. Here’s how.

By Elana Knopp
Manager, Content and Communications, Trio

 Part I

In May, Velocity Truck Rental & Leasing (VTRL), a division of Velocity Vehicle Group, announced the energization of 47 high-powered charging stations at four VTRL facilities across Southern California, including Rancho Dominguez, Fontana, the City of Industry, and San Diego. The investment is part of VTRL's initiative to lead the transition to sustainable freight solutions by providing efficient and reliable charging options for commercial medium and heavy-duty electric trucks. 

The newly installed infrastructure comprises 45 120 kW Detroit e-Fill and two ChargePoint chargers, all designed to cater to the specific needs of medium and heavy-duty battery electric trucks. The commercial-grade chargers will enable trucks such as the Class 8 Freightliner eCascadia, Class 6 and 7 Freightliner eM2, and RIZON Class 4 to 5 battery-electric cabover trucks to achieve an 80% charge in just 90 minutes or less. 

VTRL, which has locations throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, and Alabama, provides full service truck leasing, commercial truck rentals, including EV truck rentals; used truck sales; and fleet management services for private fleets and transportation service providers.[JR1] The company is a member of NationaLease, one of the largest full-service truck leasing organizations in North America, with over 1,000 service locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

How it all started

Plans for installing the charging stations began several years ago, said VTRL president David Deon. “We were trying to understand what was coming next,” he said. “I'm one of those believers that nobody is ever on the curve - you're either ahead of it or you're behind it. And my team and I began thinking about the traction for EVs and the infrastructure it was going to take.” Deon and his team looked at the market, the regulations, and consumer demand, and knew it was time to integrate charging solutions along key transit corridors to ensure that customers had the support when and where they needed it.

Deon, who serves on the eMobility Council for Freightliner, as well as on the Board of Directors for the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA), said that speaking with peers about the challenges they were facing was a key part of the planning process. “They talked about how the amount of power to charge a truck was the same as powering a McDonald's,” he said. “If you've got 10 trucks, the next thing you know it’s 20 trucks, and then it’s like trying to power a small city.”

Beyond addressing the challenges of providing vast amounts of power, there was also the issue of forecasting. What would demand be like over the next 10 years? What would the market look like? What was the company’s risk tolerance? That’s when Deon approached sustainability and energy advisory company Trio (formerly Edison Energy).

“We were trying to get ahead of the curve,” he said. “We knew we wanted to get all of our Southern California locations energized. The challenge was understanding what it would actually take to make that happen.”

Keeping customers compliant

With a goal of shaping the electromobility space – not just reacting to it – VTRL is focused on helping customers transition smoothly, ensuring that they are prepared to comply with the many forthcoming rules and regulations, as well as those already in place, including the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation.

The ACF regulation, developed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), complements CARB’s recently adopted Advanced Clean Trucks regulation and will help advance the introduction of zero-emission technologies into California’s truck and bus fleets. This requires fleets that are well suited for electrification to reduce emissions by phasing in the use of Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs), as well as the requirement that manufacturers produce only ZEV trucks beginning in the 2036 model year.

The ACF regulation is expected to introduce nearly 1,700,000 ZEVs into the California fleet by 2050.

“The manufacturers are driving that with their allocation as far as what they’re allowing dealers to sell,” Deon said. “For example, they might say that for every three internal combustion engine trucks you sell, you have to sell one EV, and they're doing that at the customer level.”

But customers with smaller fleets could get left behind in the process, according to Deon.“We want to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said. “But how are they going to satisfy the manufacturers? My proposal is simple – we’re going to make sure that we have enough electric trucks that we can rent or lease to customers - both internal combustion and zero emission - depending on where they’re at so that they can stay compliant and stay in business.”

The Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions (WAIRE) Program has also been top of mind for many customers.

The WAIRE Program aims to reduce nitrogen oxide and diesel emissions associated with warehouses, help meet federal standards, and improve public health, particularly in communities located near warehouses in California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD).

“We have a lot of people asking about the WAIRE Program,” Deon said. “They're paying fines. WAIRE started with larger warehouses, and they've gone down in square footage as far as who they fine. One of our customers that deals with Amazon gets paid extra for loads going into Amazon DC on zero emissions because now Amazon can count it towards their credits. They want to incentivize people to use zero emissions.”