Run on Less Electric, from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, put battery-electric heavy goods vehicles into real depot work and published the results. OK Produce, a produce distributor in Fresno, California, was already running Freightliner eCascadias on its shorter routes. Dynamon used ZERO to see whether simulation could match that trial, and what it would take to electrify the rest of the fleet.
Customer
Programme
Run by
Key outcomes
- Matched the trial. A simulated day lined up with a recorded run on the electric trucks already in service: the miles covered, and the battery left at the end.
- About 105 vehicles. Three kinds of work: short day routes, where the electric trucks already run; longer day routes; and runs that stay out overnight.
- Charging on the way. The longer routes need a top-up during the day, as well as overnight charging at the depot.
The fleet
OK Produce moves fresh produce by heavy goods vehicle. The fleet is about 105 vehicles. Seventeen Freightliner eCascadias were already at work on the shorter day routes, and those routes were the ones with telematics from the trial. The longer day routes, and the vehicles that stay out overnight, had no equivalent record.
The approach
Dynamon used the recorded routes to represent the work that had not been measured, so the whole operation could be tested in ZERO. The first check was the trucks already running. A recorded day of 144 miles finished with 28% of the battery left. A simulated day of the same kind covered 150 miles and finished at 27%.
ZERO was then applied to the harder routes: specifications available now, larger batteries that may follow, and the charging a fully electric fleet would need at the depot and on the road.
What the trial shows
The shorter routes were largely feasible. That is the work the electric trucks were already doing. The manufacturer’s range figure was a poor guide to the harder routes. On one route of 170 miles, the battery could cover about 144. The manufacturer’s stated typical range for the truck was 230 miles. How and where the vehicle is driven decides the result.
Some of the longer day routes could move to electric trucks available now. Finishing every longer route, and the overnight runs, needs a charge during the day as well as overnight at the depot. A larger battery leaves that need in place. At the site, choosing when each vehicle charges, and storing energy on site, reduces the grid connection a fully electric fleet would need.
A finished design for the harder routes needs telematics from those routes, with time and location.
The simulation matched a recorded day on the seventeen electric trucks already running the shorter routes. The longer work needs charging on the way, and a depot connection planned around when the vehicles charge.