Electric Urban Delivery Trucks: Energy Use, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Cost-Effectiveness

TLDR

The relative benefits of electric trucks depend on vehicle efficiency, fuel price, travel demand, battery replacement and price, electricity generation and transmission efficiency, recharging infrastructure, and purchase price. We compare electric and diesel urban delivery trucks in terms of life‑cycle energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and total cost of ownership. The study evaluates these metrics by contrasting electric and diesel trucks across different urban delivery cycles and scenarios. On the New York City Cycle, electric trucks emit 42–61 % fewer GHGs and use 32–54 % less energy, with a median 22 % lower total cost of ownership, while on the City‑Suburban Heavy Vehicle Cycle they emit 19–43 % fewer GHGs, use 5–34 % less energy, but cost 1 % more; across varying conditions, electric trucks achieve 48–82 % of diesel energy use and 25–89 % of diesel GHG emissions.

Abstract

We compare electric and diesel urban delivery trucks in terms of life-cycle energy consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and total cost of ownership (TCO). The relative benefits of electric trucks depend heavily on vehicle efficiency associated with drive cycle, diesel fuel price, travel demand, electric drive battery replacement and price, electricity generation and transmission efficiency, electric truck recharging infrastructure, and purchase price. For a drive cycle with frequent stops and low average speed such as the New York City Cycle (NYCC), electric trucks emit 42-61% less GHGs and consume 32-54% less energy than diesel trucks, depending upon vehicle efficiency cases. Over an array of possible conditions, the median TCO of electric trucks is 22% less than that of diesel trucks on the NYCC. For a drive cycle with less frequent stops and high average speed such as the City-Suburban Heavy Vehicle Cycle (CSHVC), electric trucks emit 19-43% less GHGs and consume 5-34% less energy, but cost 1% more than diesel counterparts. Considering current and projected U.S. regional electricity generation mixes, for the baseline case, the energy use and GHG emissions ratios of electric to diesel trucks range from 48 to 82% and 25 to 89%, respectively.