Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Electrification: Challenges, Policy Solutions, and Open Research Questions Beia Spiller, Nafisa Lohawala, and Emma DeAngeli Report 23-03 May 2023 Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Electrification: Challenges, Policy Solutions, and Open Research Questions A About the Authors Beia Spiller is a fellow and the Transportation Program director at Resources for the Future (RFF). Prior to joining RFF, she was Lead Senior Economist at Environmental Defense Fund, where she worked for almost a decade. Spiller is an energy economist with experience working on electricity and transportation issues and participating in electric utility proceedings. She also has many years of experience working in the transportation sector, with recent efforts focusing on electric vehicles and environmental justice and exploring the adoption of electric cars, trucks, and buses. Nafisa Lohawala is a fellow at Resources for the Future. She earned a PhD in economics at the University of Michigan after receiving a BS-MS dual degree in economics with a minor in computer science and engineering (algorithms) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Lohawala’s research lies at the intersection of industrial organization, energy economics, and public finance. She focuses on the effect of government policies on environmental and safety externalities generated by the transportation sector, as well as other transportation issues, including decarbonization strategies for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Emma DeAngeli is a research analyst at Resources for the Future. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2020 with a BA in mathematics and a BMA in cello performance. She then earned her master of environmental management degree with a specialization in environmental economics and policy from Duke University in 2022, focusing on community-based environmental management and climate change policy. Her previous research focused on incorporating equity into state regulatory impact analyses. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the following organizations for their input and assistance in writing this paper: NYSERDA, NREL, PG&E, Consolidated Edison, Volvo Trucks North America, CALSTART, Environmental Defense Fund, and Cummins. All errors are our own. Resources for the Future i About RFF Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy. The views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. Sharing Our Work Our work is available for sharing and adaptation under an AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. You can copy and redistribute our material in any medium or format; you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made, and you may not apply additional restrictions. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Electrification: Challenges, Policy Solutions, and Open Research Questions ii Abstract Medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles (MHDEVs) are a promising solution to decarbonizing our transportation sector. Not only is the technology advanced, but multiple stakeholders are generating momentum for the adoption of clean vehicles. However, many challenges remain. In this paper, we describe the economics of adoption, electric vehicle logistics and operations, vehicle manufacturing, required infrastructure investments, barriers to an equitable transition, and both positive and negative externalities. We also discuss low-carbon alternatives to diesel vehicles. We next discuss policy solutions for the challenges (including both existing and potential policies). Finally, based on our literature review, we present open research questions whose answers would help