Daimler, Volvo, Navistar form a ‘supergroup’ to ramp up electric truck charging infrastructure

Daimler Truck North America, Navistar, and Volvo Group North America just formed a coalition to accelerate the rollout of US charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks.

Daimler Truck North America, Navistar, and Volvo Group North America sell around 70% of the big trucks in the US, and they’re serious about accelerating their sector’s switch to electric. Other companies such as ABB E-mobility, Voltera, and Prologis are also on board. It’s like a who’s who of the trucking and energy world.

Their new coalition is called Powering America’s Commercial Transportation (PACT), and they’re all about overcoming barriers to building the charging stations that big electric trucks and commercial vehicles need.

PACT’s game plan is to educate, advocate, and get those charging stations built without playing favorites with any particular technology. They want practical, efficient solutions that can accommodate the rapidly growing number of electric trucks on the road.

Medium- and heavy-duty trucks need special charging stations, way more power, and a lot of planning to make the switch. We’re talking about needing almost 700,000 chargers by 2030.

John O’Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks, said, “Through PACT, we aim to accelerate this infrastructure buildout so that fleets can adopt ZEVs at scale and we can all benefit from impactful emissions reductions as quickly as possible.”

Navistar’s president and CEO Mathias Carlbaum agreed, saying that truckers need fast, reliable, and easy-to-use charging to make this shift. And Stephen Roy, chairman of Volvo Group North America and president of Mack Trucks, stressed that this is a huge task, and that “understanding and coordination across the different stakeholders is imperative to deploy chargers quickly and cost-effectively.”

In short, PACT wants to ensure that when big truck fleets go electric, they have the power they need.

Read more: A $2-3 billion battery factory for electric trucks is headed to Mississippi

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