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Electrifying Freight Transport

Freight transport is critical to the global and national economy; every day trucks, vans, ships, airplanes, and other vehicles carry goods across borders and oceans, bringing us the products we need to work and live.

Freight transport also produces significant emissions, especially medium- and heavy-duty trucks. As we note in our report, Preventing Electric Truck Gridlock, heavy-duty trucks alone are responsible for 20 percent of transportation-related emissions, despite only accounting for less than 4 percent of all vehicles on the road.

Electrifying those freight vehicles can not only reduce emissions but also costs: RMI analysis shows that electrifying heavy-duty and medium-duty vehicles can reduce operating costs by 25 percent and 50 percent respectively compared to their diesel counterparts. Electric trucks also improve driver experience, operations, and air quality in surrounding communities.

That’s why electrifying freight transport nationally and globally is an integral part of our work. In partnership with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), we advance truck electrification by:

  • Using telematics-derived truck behavior to help stakeholders understand how electric trucks will impact the grid and what steps they can take to ensure it is prepared to meet increased demand from these vehicles;
  • Bringing together stakeholders to identify and address barriers to electrification;
  • Providing robust analysis and actionable insights that policymakers, fleets, utilities, city planners, original equipment manufacturers, and others can use to make informed decisions; and
  • Showcasing promising and scalable solutions, including those related to charging, grid infrastructure planning, fleet operations, and more.

What We Do

While a growing number of fleets recognize the benefits of electrification, many are worried that the grid will be unable to power their electric trucks. These concerns are understandable given that grid upgrades take years to build. Today, many fleets are delaying electrifying their vehicles due to the length of time it takes electric utilities to provide power to large charging facilities.

That’s why RMI is working with utility companies to:

  • Forecast electric truck adoption rates;
  • Understand how, when, and where these vehicles will increase power demand; and
  • Determine how best to prepare the grid for this increase.

This information helps utilities make better planning decisions, protects electric customers, and increases transparency about utility investments.

RMI resources

  • Tool: GridUp is a free tool that forecasts when and where energy and power demand will materialize from vehicle electrification. It is uniquely detailed and flexible, allowing users to gain greater insight into how driving behavior will create and shape charging demand, giving them the information they need to make cost-effective decisions. The underlying analytical engine enables our researchers to provide a wide array of bespoke analyses based on stakeholder needs.
  • Article: Electrification 101: How Fleets and Utilities Can Work Together to Unlock Electrified Transportation: This article describes the importance of collaboration between fleets and utilities to prepare the grid for increased loads generated by electric trucks.
  • Report: Preventing Electric Truck Gridlock: Meeting the Urgent Need for a Stronger Grid: This report provides an easy-to-understand background of electric trucks; their market potential; the challenges facing rapid electrification in the industry; adoption rates and their influence on electricity demand; and what fleets, regulators, policymakers, utilities, and other stakeholders can do to ensure that they have the power they need today and in the future.
  • Article: How to Prepare the Grid for Electric Medium- and Heavy-Duty Trucks: Lessons from Los Angeles: RMI’s analysis of truck data from Los Angeles, California, shows how fleets, utilities, local government, and charging-as-a-service providers can prepare the grid for increased power demand from electric trucks. Other cities can use this information as they develop and implement grid infrastructure buildout strategies.
  • Report: ACT Now: How the Advanced Clean Trucks Rule Will Impact the Electric Grid and Fleets: An analysis of telematics data from Geotab ITS in 15 states that plan to implement Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule regulations. To ensure this strategic, proactive planning, policymakers, utilities and their regulators, fleets, and electric vehicle (EV) service providers will need to answer the following questions: how much energy and how many chargers will electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks need? Where will energy demand increase and how will this increase impact the electric grid? Where is infrastructure investment needed and how can costs be reduced? How should stakeholders prioritize investments to ensure they are made equitably and deliver maximum societal value?
  • Report: Six Building Blocks to Prepare the Grid for EVs: This report’s insights can help expedite needed grid upgrades, developed in partnership with utilities, regulators, and other EV charging stakeholders.

RMI is proud to partner with NACFE, an unbiased and fuel-agnostic organization that works to drive the development and adoption of efficiency-enhancing, environmentally beneficial, and cost-effective technologies, services, and methodologies in the North American freight industry.

NACFE communicates the benefits, challenges, and the return on investment of various fuel-efficiency options. It brings together fleets, manufacturers, vehicle builders, and other government and nongovernmental organizations to improve trucking efficiency.

NACFE’s flagship program is its biannual Run On Less freight efficiency demonstrations. In 2025, the fifth Run On Less event features 13 heavy-duty fleets operating heavy-duty Class 8 trucks with differing decarbonization technologies. It showcases the multiple powertrain solutions currently available to fleets, including battery electric, hydrogen fuel cells, renewable natural gas, biodiesel, and hybrid.

The organization also provides stakeholders with the information they need to make data-informed decisions. Its annual Fleet Fuel Study provides a deep-dive investigation into how major North American fleets are leveraging innovative products, technologies, and practices to improve freight efficiency.

RMI has built a well-tested in-house vehicle cost model that is the backbone of its trucking adoption forecasts. RMI can model economics on a depot basis, analyzing impacts of regional electricity or diesel costs, distributed energy resource utilization, managed charging, vehicle miles traveled, incentives, and other policies. RMI can use its total cost of ownership analysis and adoption forecasting to provide analysis at the right level of detail and time window for policymakers, utilities, infrastructure providers, and fleets.

RMI resources

Optimizing electric vehicle deployment requires thinking not only about EV adoption but also about how they will be charged. Two solutions to reduce grid connection times and costs include:

  1. Managed charging, an operational strategy that prioritizes charging during off-peak hours. While unmanaged charging can still save fleets money when compared to diesel and gasoline trucks, managed charging can save even more, helping offset the higher up-front cost of electric trucks. RMI analysis found that charging during off-peak hours can reduce fleets’ electricity costs by up to 30 percent.
  2. Distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar panels and battery storage can further reduce charging costs. RMI is working with stakeholders to capture the full benefits of DERs, including cheaper, faster grid connections. DERs can also help meet electric trucks’ power needs while fleets work to build grid-connected charging depots, a process that can take years.

RMI resources

The 180 million light-duty commercial vehicles across the world, including sedans, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), vans, and pickup trucks, produce significant emissions. That’s why RMI works to provide stakeholders around the world with the analysis and actionable insights they need to advance their light-duty electrification efforts.

RMI resources

  • Article: How Fleets Can Electrify Light-Duty Commercial Vehicles: RMI worked with Element Fleet Management and their Global Alliance partner, Arval, using anonymized performance data from their global client fleet to explore the feasibility and benefits of light-duty commercial vehicle fleet electrification. The analysis, detailed in the 2024 Global Electrification Report: Accelerating Fleet Decarbonization, draws on the real-world experience of fleets operating in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the United States, and a broad European market. It also categorizes the benefits of fleet electrification and strategies for overcoming common challenges.
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