TEC remains committed to being the equipment experts for all our customer needs as the country’s emphasis on clean transportation grows.
- Buying and Electric Truck
- Route Optimization
- Leasing & Rental Solutions
- TEC’s Commitment to BEV Owners/Operators
- Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles
- Medium-Duty Electric Vehicles
There is a shift happening in the transportation industry towards clean transportation and electromobility, including widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). And at TEC, we cannot emphasize how important it is to get started early in planning how this shift affects you and your business.
Our team believes a true collaborative partnership with you can either make, or break, the success you find in the transition to battery electric, and beyond. Not only do you need the right equipment, but it needs to make financial sense, and must provide reliable and flexible charging solutions and infrastructure to keep your fleet up and running, whether that’s 1 truck, or 1,000.
While there remain numerous questions around regulations, infrastructure, funding and timelines, TEC Equipment’s EV project team helps evaluate how electric semi trucks fit within each customer’s unique operations, plan through their needs from charging to incentives and anticipate the future with proven quality products from all our EV equipment providers including Volvo, Mack, SEA Electric, Hino and Isuzu.
TEC follows our established and proven-successful approach to helping customers walk through what moving to clean transportation means for them. Our team works hard to uncover the details that drive your battery electric and zero emissions success:
- business and equipment needs
- routes
- areas of operation
- duty cycles
- dwell times
- payloads
- trucks in the fleet
- specs needed
From there, our team walks with you through an analysis of total cost of ownership (TCO), funding and incentive opportunities, infrastructure needs, and route considerations to name a few.
Buying An Electric Semi Truck
There are many considerations of owning and or operating medium- and heavy-duty battery electric trucks.
Costs
Critical to planning for the adoption of battery electric trucks is assessing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Many factors play into the total cost of ownership, and those factors are highly individualized to each of our customers and their business. These factors include:
- Purchase price
- Incentives, vouchers and rebates – state and federal
- Financing options
- Residual value of equipment
- Miles and kilowatt hours planned
- Maintenance and service costs
- Telematics and performance optimization programming
- Infrastructure considerations (e.g. charging stations)
- Driver training
- Insurance
We highly advise that any true assessment of total cost of ownership should include working with our knowledgeable EV team to ensure all costs are considered. TEC’s sales staff has multiple-year, first-hand experience working with customers to understand all these factors, and continues to further our own knowledge base daily on legislation and regulations that are ever-evolving.
A more generalized assessment tool is offered by California HVIP. Its Total Cost of Ownership Tool considers some of the above factors, and may be a starting point for those considering BEV options.
EV Incentives, Vouchers, & Grants
A number of incentives, vouchers and grants are available from federal, state and local sources to help defray the cost of zero emissions transportation. TEC believes helping a customer secure tailored funding is central to the immediate and long-term success they will experience in getting the most out of their investment in clean transportation. There can be complexities in finding and securing these various forms of funding, so we make sure to start by asking our customers questions about their basic and more complex business needs. Then we use various funding finder tools to determine what funding is applicable and available to you.
Central to California customers’ adoption of ZE transportation is the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project. This program works directly with dealers like TEC, to apply incentives at time of purchase. As of Spring 2023, the Standard HVIP program includes:
- Class 4-5 = $60,000 base
- Class 6-7 = $85,000 base
- Class 8 = $120,000 base
Additional resources available to help find funding opportunities for sustainable transportation include:
- Advanced Vehicle Technology and Infrastructure Funding Finder Tool a powered by CALSTART to search and filter for medium- and heavy-duty alternative fuel vehicle and infrastructure programs in the state of California
- Southeastern Alternative Fuel Deployment Partnership Project (SEAFDP) from Georgia, offering up to 100% of the incremental cost of the electric truck.
- Drayage Truck Replacement Program from Maryland, offering up to $30,000 per electric truck.
- MOR-EV Trucks Program from Massachusetts, offering up to $90,000 per electric truck.
- Michigan Fuel Transformation Program Part 1 offering up to 70% of the total electric truck cost.
- New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program (NY-TVIP) offering up to $185,000 per electric truck.
- Utah Clean Diesel Program offering up to 45% of the total cost of the electric truck.
Infrastructure
Deploying battery electric trucks involves a number of infrastructure considerations. Things like charging solutions, electric utility supply, long-term facility and site plans – all have vast implications on charging requirements and utility needs. TEC helps ask questions and find solutions for our customers that ultimately ensure they are holistically prepared for all the demands or deploying zero emissions trucks today, and in the future.
Charging
Central to the successful operation of BEV transportation is charging. Having appropriate chargers on-site that are suitable to the capacity and timing needs of users is critical.
Smaller electric trucks and vehicles can get by with a Level 2 charger that is run off of 208/240 volt power – common at most commercial facilities. However, Level 2 charges quickly become too small for many medium-duty needs, and are not an option for heavy-duty needs
For medium- and heavy-duty owners, a direct current (DC) fast charger is the highest-powered charger on the market. DC fast chargers offer much faster charging capacity, and are necessary for those trucks involved with daily operation.
TEC is a proud seller of DC fast chargers made by ABB, Heliox and Freewire. We partner with these providers to ensure our customers secure charging solutions that are specific to their needs. To do that, we work with customers to:
- Understand their unique charging needs
- Identify tailored charging solutions and associated costs
- Assist customers in securing chargers
- Plan for the installation and implementation of charging units
Utilities
Hand-in-hand with charging considerations is the assurance that the associated utilities can deliver the required electrical supply to our customer locations. Electric service to these locations may require an upgrade to the electric grid, electrical equipment, or other considerations necessitating the involvement of a customer’s electric utility.
TEC’s first-hand experience working through the challenges of installing chargers on our own site, as well as prior experience helping many customers prepare for battery electric deployment means we’re well-prepared to help step through these all-important details with big utility companies that often take months and can be quite cumbersome.
Route Optimization
Every customer needs to run an efficient business to remain competitive. That means evaluating viable zero emission and battery electric solutions in light of what routes demand. The TEC team consults with each customer to fully understand their daily demands on equipment, and analyze their routes to identify which of the many electrified equipment options are best suited to them.
As a part of the consideration process, our team also discusses the role telematics might play in helping to keep units charged, and on the road. The use of telematics and all the resulting data from these programs helps our customers understand a multitude of details about their use of equipment, optimizing for their business needs.
Electric Semi Truck Leasing & Rental Solutions
TEC Equipment Leasing is excited to be able to help our customers needing leasing solutions find battery electric equipment solutions that fit their needs. As more and more equipment availability comes online through our major partners – Volvo, Mack, Hino, Isuzu and SEA Electric – we will remain committed to offering our customers the best in electric transportation solutions through our truck Leasing and Rental team.
TEC’s Commitment to BEV Owners/Operators
TEC Equipment is not just here for the sale of Battery Electric Vehicles. We are dedicated to being your partner throughout the lifetime of your vehicle. A big part of that is keeping our warehouses stocked with the parts that you need and continuously training our technicians as BEV technology advances.
Battery Electric Vehicle Parts
We stock all of the parts needed for the battery electric vehicles we offer. In a battery electric truck, there are fewer parts and components that make up the vehicle, so that means fewer parts to worry about. A typical diesel engine consists of thousands of parts whereas a BEV engine only consists of a few parts.
Battery Electric Vehicle Service and Warranty
TEC Equipment currently has multiple Mack and Volvo Trucks Certified EV Dealerships. At each of those locations, our service team is fully trained and equipped to safely perform battery electric maintenance and repairs for BEV trucks in operation. Each certified location has a dedicated BEV service bay and at least four technicians certified to work on BEVs.
With fewer components, BEVs require less maintenance and fewer repairs compared to diesel-powered trucks. With fewer things to grease, and fewer fluids to change, there are fewer things that can go wrong in a BEV. BEVs have similar maintenance intervals to a diesel truck to ensure the vehicle is operating smoothly and to help catch issues before they become more serious.
Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles
Heavy-duty electric trucks are now on the scene and ready to tackle local routes. From day cabs to refuse trucks, heavy-duty electric trucks give you the extra power needed for heavier loads and tougher jobs. These trucks are perfect for fleets and businesses with a local or regional route.
TEC Equipment is proud to continue our relationship with Mack and Volvo now in the heavy-duty BEV market. With their innovative BEV technology and expertise, they consistently deliver top-of-the-line products. TEC Equipment’s reach and infrastructure combined with Mack and Volvo’s technology, sets up our customers for success in integrating battery electric vehicles into their business.
Medium-Duty Electric Vehicles
Medium-duty trucks don’t require as much power to operate compared to their heavy-duty counterpart and are well-suited for electrification. Medium-duty trucks return to their home base every day and typically do not travel long distances. This makes charging much easier, and the miles driven in a day match up well with the battery’s range.
Medium-duty BEVs are much quieter, which means they can operate in cities at night and can significantly lower noise pollution. BEVS produce no exhaust gases which will reduce pollution in cities and highly trafficked areas. Driving BEVS has proved to be more enjoyable for drivers with fewer vibrations and less noise from the vehicle.
