Peterbilt will begin limited electric truck sales in late 2020

Peterbilt Motors will set prices for deliveries of battery-powered, zero-emission trucks by the middle of next year with limited sales by year-end https://www.freightwaves.com/news/peterbilt-will-begin-limited-electric-truck-sales-in-late-2020

The Paccar Inc. unit is showing its three electric vehicle configurations for refuse, regional haul and city delivery at the North American Commercial Vehicles Show in Atlanta

All three are in demonstration use by customers

“Peterbilt’s comprehensive electric vehicle lineup allows us to support our customers’ diverse needs,” said Jason Skoog, Paccar vice president and Peterbilt general manager

The number of Peterbilt electric trucks will grow from the current 16 including a dozen regional haul day cabs, to 36 by the end of the first quarter

Biagi placed the Model 579EV in service in October

It uses a 264 kWh TransPower energy storage subsystem driven by a 430 hp Meritor Blue-Horizon mid-ship motor drive subsystem

It can travel about 133 miles on a single charge and recharge in an hour with a fast-charging system

PepsiCo’s Frito Lay division took delivery of the first Peterbilt 220EV in early October

It is powered by two TransPower battery packs with a total storage capacity of 148 kWh, and a Meritor Blue-Horizon two-speed drive eAxle with up to 335 hp

It can travel more than 100 miles on a single charge and recharge in one hour by fast-charging

The Model 520EV for the refuse market is on display at the commercial vehicles show

It is powered by a 308 kWh TransPower energy storage subsystem

The midship motor drive subsystem generates up to 430 hp

It has a 100-mile range on a single charge and recharges in about 4 hours

Peterbilt is poised to capture more than 9% of the medium-duty truck market this year, a company record partly reflective of capacity constraints at Daimler Trucks North America

Daimler’s share of medium-duty trucks was down 7 percentage points through the end of September

Peterbilt’s share gains historically register late in the year

“Our medium-duty tends to go into the vocational application”

The truck built in December may not be registered until July because of the time it takes for a body-builder to upfit the truck for its specific use

Another factor, Skoog said, is that Peterbilt competitors sell a lot of medium-duty trucks to rental fleets like Penske and Ryder

That drives their market share higher early in the year

Jason Skoog, general manager of Peterbilt Motors, is bullish for the Paccar Inc. unit’s growth in medium-duty truck market share

“I’m very bullish on our medium-duty market share,” he told FreightWaves

“It was 8% for a number of years. Last year, we ticked up to 9%. This year we should be over 9%, and I think the best is yet to come for medium-duty at Peterbilt”

Overall Peterbilt expects to finish the year with 15% of the Class 8 market in the U.S. and Canada, second to the 15.3% it registered in 2017

Discussions that Peterbilt held with about 30 fleets at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition earlier in October found that nearly all want to turn over equipment faster

“It’s about driver retention. It’s about continued progress on fuel economy and reliability across the industry,” Skoog said

“Every truck you buy today is going to be better than the one from two years ago or a year ago. That’s just the evolution of the products”

Newer equipment also costs less to maintain, improving total cost of ownership

Peterbilt projects final 2019 industry retail sales of 310,000 to 320,000, the second-best year in industry history following a record 2018

Echoing comments of other truck manufacturing executives, Skoog said 2020 should be a “return to normal” year with retail sales of 230,000 to 260,000

Peterbilt’s backlog of trucks awaiting production exceeds its market share

Paccar claims about 36% of the industry backlog compared with the roughly combined 30% held by Peterbilt and its sibling Kenworth Truck Co

“It’s a combination of customers that want deliveries in 2020, multi-year deals with fleets and orders as soon as possible,” Skoog said