(The Center Square) – A draft report by Washington state’s Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council attributes the increased price of new electric semi-trucks to be the result of “market failure.” Industry members say there’s more to the story.
“I don’t know in what context they came to that conclusion,” Washington Trucking Associations President Sheri Call told The Center Square. “I think it’s more indicative of the relative lack of maturity in the market.”
Created in 2022, the EVCC is composed of members from state agencies that develop and submit recommendations to the Legislature on how to achieve electric vehicle adoption in both the public and private sector.
Its draft 2024 report contains a section discussing California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulations, which requires truck manufacturers make electric semis a certain percentage of their sales, starting this year at 8%. In 2020, the Legislature tied Washington state to policies like ACT adopted by the California Air Resource Board, though many trucking industry members repeatedly warned against doing so. One of the reasons is the lack of electric truck sales, which per ACT restricts how many diesel trucks manufacturers are allowed to sell.
The EVCC plans to discuss its draft report when it convenes on March 19 for a virtual meeting.
One of the issues facing potential buyers is the cost. EV trucks cost around $400,000 compared to $150,00 for a diesel truck.
However, the EVCC’s draft report called the increased electric truck prices “counter-intuitive,” citing a recent CARB study that found European electric trucks were significantly cheaper than U.S. trucks.
The CARB study noted that “the are many differences between European and American truck designs and regulations that make direct comparisons on pricing difficult,” but the price disparity was determined “by finding the difference between the base diesel truck price in each region and the base ZET price, using equivalent models.”
The EVCC’s draft report states that high prices in America “appear to be a market failure that may require policy action. ACT’s ZEV sales requirements should lead to price decreases and increased demand, and battery prices have continued to decline, which should also contribute to lower prices. Instead, truck manufacturers are raising prices despite an economic incentive to do the opposite.”
However, Call said “the incentives have not even rolled out,” adding that high prices are in part due to low interest among truck buyers because of “the utter lack of infrastructure. I think they’re [government] relying on the private industry to solve the problem. When you’re talking an interstate industry, the failure is that it’s not a nationwide policy, so we can’t ensure that we can operate across state lines.”
Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 5091, which would delink Washington’s ties to California’s vehicle emission rules. He told The Center Square while he hadn’t seen the EV Council’s draft report, he said one of the issues affecting prices is having incentives or subsidies in one part of the market but not in others.
“When you push incentives out there, they’ve got to be effective,” he said.
He added that the increased truck prices going contrary to what was anticipated is further proof that Washington should oversee its own policies, saying it’s been “catastrophic” for the state to hand over that authority to an out-of-state agency.
“If anything, it’s not a Democrat/Republican issue,” he said. “You want to fight for Washington first.”
