California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Advance Clean Fleet’s regulation would require motor carriers with 50 or more big rigs to switch over to electric battery-powered zero-emission trucks. But how to accomplish this on California-Mexico cross border trade is a conundrum.
A federal lawsuit filed by the California Trucking Association (CTA) to block the state’s mandate to have electric trucks on the roads by 2045 could delay enforcement of the ruling but it is not likely to break the bottleneck at the Tijuana Baja California border whereas many 7,000 to 9,000 gasoline and diesel powered 18-wheelers daily can idle up to six hours waiting to enter the US.
The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Advance Clean Fleet’s regulation would require motor carriers with 50 or more big rigs that generate more than $50 million annually operating in the state to switch over from internal combustion engines to electric battery-powered zero-emission vehicles starting as early as this year. The proposal totally bans the sale of traditionally-fueled big rig trucks in 2035.
Solutions Lacking
“We have no solutions at this point,” says Alejandra Mier-y-Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, located just over the Mexican border and home to large truck lines that haul freight between California and Mexico, the state’s number one trading partner.
The “solutions’ sought by trucking company owners on both sides of the international border (and elsewhere in the state) are the challenges of buying, financing and charging electric trucks. Added to these problems operators need to deal often with lighter loads to offset the truck’s heavier batteries (requiring more trucks and truck transits to carry the same amount of freight) coupled with the loss of time on the road between battery charges. Finally, trucks on the cross border trade between Mexico and California often sit idling for hours in long lines which compounds power drains whether it is diesel or a battery powered vehicle.
Currently, Otay Mesa, a San Diego neighborhood with a population of 23,031, is the center of attention in the dispute over the implantation of electric trucks between California’s motor carrier industry and CARB, the state’s anti-emissions and clean air enforcers,
“The Otay Mesa land port of entry is the busiest commercial landport in California, processing over $13.5 billion in exports and $37.4 billion in imports in fiscal 2021,” says Chris Shimoda, senior vice president of legislative affairs for the California Trucking Association (CTA). “Nearly one million commercial trucks are processed at this facility alone and some 566,000 California jobs are involved in trade with Mexico.” Mexico is the U.S. second largest supplier of goods and services and the nation’s biggest supplier of agricultural products, he adds.
Challenges to the Grid
So, it is not surprising the CTA executive is concerned that San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) facility in Otay Mesa’s does not have enough electricity on its grid to power potential new influx of electric trucks that will be based there. Is the utility planning to expand its grid at the border? American Journal of Transportation telephoned the company to ask that question and did not get an answer.
“The challenge of accommodating heavy duty truck charging is not unique to SDG&E,” contends Shimoda. “Due to the capacity of the chargers, major upgrades are required on the utility side of the grid—transmission and distribution. These are long lead time, extremely costly upgrades that are subject to an entirely separate regulatory approval process at the California Public Utilities Commission.”
Meantime, in an earlier interview with AJOT, he said he was “not sure how much coordination has been done to date” between California utilities and the state owned electric utility in Mexico serving the border where truck charging stations are needed but do not exist. Several years ago, Francisco Rubio Rangel, president of Tijuana’s Electricity Commission, told a reporter with Border Crossing, that “the region’s economic future will be in doubt if nothing is done to expand the power grid in the region. We are about 600 megawatts short. If we don’t solve this problem, you are going to see supply dry up.”
There are many unanswered questions triggered by the electronic truck mandate, particularly on the Mexico side of the border which has only a few EV trucking big rigs on its roads and no network of public charging stations. Mexican-owned motor carriers would clearly be impacted. “Any truck handling containerized cargo destined to or originating from a regulated port or railyard traveling to and from a regulated port or railyard and from the manufacturing center in Baja will need to comply, even if the fleet has just a single truck via the drayage truck requirements in the Advance Clean Fleet regulation,” Shimoda explained in an earlier interview with the AJOT.
Electric Class 8s Debut
Still, it appears that Mexico’s shippers, consignees and motor carriers will not be entirely shut out of lucrative California-Mexico trade because they cannot comply with the CARB mandate if and when it is enforced. Daimler Truck Mexico in Santiago, Mexico earlier this year delivered the first of two battery-powered all-electric Class 8 Freightliner eCascadias to its customer, Transportes M. Esteban of Segovia, Mexico.
A Daimler spokesman in Mexico City told the AJOT the two all-electric Freightliners were actually manufactured in Portland, Oregon and the assignment included an Electric Island charging station at Santiago designated for use by Transportes Estaban’s Freightliners. The Electric Island, one of two charging stations built, has a capacity of up to 120KW, capable of charging up to 80 percent of the electric truck’s battery in 220 minutes. The Daimler Truck spokesman said the all-electric zero-emission Freightliner eCascadia is well-proven and has been delivered to over 50 fleets in North America.
While manufacturer Daimler Truck maintains it has put the first two-all-electric trucks on the road in Mexico, a large Otay Mesa-based motor carrier with 400 trucks, is not waiting to see how the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate works out. Juan Baez, president of Bali Express Services, in an exclusive interview with the American Journal of Transportation, says recently ordered 11 Peterbilt Class 8 all-electric trucks and trailers, five Kenwood and 20 Volvo tractors and trailers.
“We have our own San Diego Gas & Electric approved charging station in San Diego that can charge 18 electric vehicles at once and a charging station in Tijuana that can charge six (electric) trucks at a time,” Baez explains. Ironically, only 20 precent of Bali’s annual revenues come from US- Mexico cross-border hauls. Most of its business is long haul freight transportation and drayage in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, he says.
The new electric trucks, financed by the North American Development Bank, have been welcomed by drivers, insists Baez. “They are very happy with the trucks. They are easy to drive, make no noise, have more power and less maintenance. Pre and post trip inspections are faster and easier with electric trucks because you have no oil leaks or broken hoses, and the engine is simpler.
But there is one big challenge to all-electric trucks, the Bali Express Services chief concedes. “The mileage between charges ranges from 150 miles for the Peterbilt and the Kenwood and 220 miles for the Volvos.
While California-based truckers are beginning to buy all-electric trucks, it is unclear how Mexican-owned motor carriers are going to comply with the impending CARB mandate that will also require charging station infrastructures. AJOT called several times and emailed Alfonso Millan Chavez, Cancar’s delegate in Tijuana, but he did not respond.
Tutor of CARB says he is talking with Mexico truck owners, freight specialists and government officials regularly and reports that the nation’s ground logistics industry wants to move into all-electric trucks—if they could secure some financial incentives and afford the electronic infrastructure needed to support the vehicles. The governor of Baja California is on board, says Tutor. For starters, he wants to test public dedicated charging stations at each (border) crossing.”
Some to electrify U.S-Mexico ground logistics are extreme. Another suggestion for a Mexican electric truck draining its power waiting in traffic to cross the U.S. Mexico border is for one long haul truck to drop its load at Tijuana, load it on to another truck that waits and makes the crossing, and a third electric truck would pick up the load on the California side and make the delivery.
