Ryder announced that consumers will hire or lease the all-electric Workhorse C-Series short-term pickup truck, which can be a vital first step for fleets looking to electrify their last-kilometre assets.
The C-1000 will be first made available in California this month through Ryder’s COOP peer-to-peer truck sharing platform. The C-1000 has 1,000 cubic feet of space and weighs 13,000 pounds fully loaded. Workhorse used a composite frame that is lighter than aluminum, which allows for a 100-mile range. Other features include a low-floor platform for easier ingress and egress, as well as the Metron telematics system.
Longer-term rentals will be credited to Ryder’s ChoiceLease and SelectCare. California will be the starting point because Ryder has cargo nets at 11 of its Golden State facility. Fontana and Northridge stations are supplied with ABB DC fast charging stations.
Although the charging infrastructure is still fully mature, Ryder needs consumers to begin to notice the benefits and weaknesses of electric cars as soon as possible.
“We see immediate opportunities for consumers to take advantage of the benefits of our electric cars and our turnkey infrastructure model, starting with the Workhorse C-Series van, as it meets a massive need in this new economy where last-mile electricity is required, car delivery continues,” said Chris Nordh, Senior Director of Advanced Vehicle Technology and Energy Products. Ryder System, Inc. COOP is the ideal launch pad for next-generation cars, such as the Workhorse C-Series electric van, giving consumers the opportunity to review cars in markets without long-term commitment. Our consumers have already shown great interest in Workhorse cars, and we are excited to move forward in this program. “
With a just added $70 million in investment, Workhorse now has “almost $110 million of cash to support our accelerated production efforts and working capital needs,” said Workhorse CEO Duane Hughes.
“We have delivered their first two C-1000s and are very happy to be with them to offer our C Series electric cars to their consumers across the country,” Hughes said of the Ryder Alliance. “We are confident that we will see new orders as soon as their consumers see the revolutionary nature of our products and their accessibility through Ryder.”
Hughes also added Workhorse is the that due to a recent certification by the California Air Resources Board, Workhorse is the “only fully permitted, last-mile EV OEM with outstanding sales orders currently building vehicles for commercial use across the country.”
One reason to get an early jump on electrification: Last mile electrification is inevitable. Emissions regulations are getting tighter and low-emission zones may become common. Also, the total cost of ownership could soon rival that of diesel and gasoline. A 2019 Business Insider report found that the last mile, or final leg of the delivery process, can comprise 53% of the total shipping cost, and a big selling point on electric vehicles is less maintenance due to fewer moving parts.
For this reason, fleets wishing to remain competitive should perceive the problems of electric trucks as soon as possible.
In its report on the ownership of medium-weight electric trucks, the North American Cargo Efficiency Council said: Fleets that decide today on electric trucks will enter the information curve before those expected. Early users will disclose faults and omissions that OEMs will correct. They will validate or reject CBEV claims. They will also be informed how to optimize their operations to make the most of electric cars in your company’s bottom line.
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The truck itself will always be the most important link in the supply chain. It can get large quantities of anything to any destination as long as there is a passable road or path. But no matter how trucking advances, don’t expect tires to change much.
When the global was introduced into a lesson in fashion survival, our dependence on the transportation industry became even more pronounced. Since then, there has been some appreciation in the press and some symptoms in some structure sites, however, the little-known load formula remains anonymous. It will be difficult to manage multiple distribution channels so that goods and facilities can succeed in the consumer. Virtually all of this is based on road transport at some point, however, other people still have no idea that society would collapse without trucks.
Business leaders have focused more on the fragility of home chains, so I implemented this in the trucking industry and proposed 3 critical areas: trucks, fuel, and drive forces. I put the driving forces at the end for an express explanation of why, because there is a genuine option that trucks can be driven in the same way or in a similar way to drones thousands of miles away. Imagine a built-in network of cars that don’t have a physical driving force in the seat and are handled with sensors and GPS. A user can use multiple cars on other monitors and even interfere to drive the truck remotely when alerted or needed.
Fuel is more productive described as an energy source. Electric trucks are interesting, but limited battery life and charging time are major obstacles that will have to succeed at a lower value than diesel. Without a national network of high-speed charging stations, a rechargeable battery would be most productive. They would be similar to wireless tool batteries, but much more resilient and probably much larger/heavy. Like my driverless van, it’s possible.
The truck itself will be the maximum life link in the source chain. You can bring large quantities of anything to any destination as long as there is a path or a satisfactory path. In my driverless rechargeable van in Fantasyland, each and every component would be electric and would only be replaced when it didn’t work. No more fuel, liquids or compressed air. Technologies such as electric motors and recovery braking systems have the possibility to replace the concept of the motor application vehicle.
Of course, the only thing that is unlikely to update in Fantasyland Trucking are the tires. Everything else may seem absolutely different in the immediate and not too remote future, however, I bet the tire will continue to play the same role it played for more than a century. There may even be progress in connecting it to the vehicle, however, the truck’s cameraless radial tire has been so reliable and adaptable for so long that I will update it in my life.
That level of reliance is troubling given what we’ve learned about the dependence on foreign countries for strategically important products or materials. Manufacturing isn’t an issue. There’s enough domestic truck tire capacity to avoid any long-term disruptions and physical space for expansion will not be an issue for most tire companies. If for some reason the supply of imported tires was interrupted for an extended period of time, there would be some short term pain and almost certain price increases, but the trucks would keep moving.
Natural rubber (NR) will be the weakest link in the vehicle shipping formula and more than 70% of the global source will go to the tyre industry. It is an agricultural product that is always the subject of drought, diseases and various environmental threats. It grows only in the subtropical regions of Southeast Asia and, although other select plants have shown promise, there will never be enough Russian dandelions and/or guayule to meet the demand of tire manufacturers. The option to create artificial fabrics to upgrade NR still exists, but as far as I know, some functionality features of the Hevea brasiliensis latex still want to be recreated in the lab.
During the rubber shortages of 1942-1945 due to World War II, the effort to ration tires and rubber led to a national “Victory Speed” of 35 mph on all roads, streets and highways. Given the continued fragility of NR production and the fact that about 95% of global output is located in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, India and China, tire manufacturers have a collective interest in maintaining a steady supply of a key raw material that will never be sourced domestically. As a result, they are founding members of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) to “lead improvements in the socio-economic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain.”
Approximately 85% of global NR production is categorized as smallholders where local people cultivate scattered patches of Hevea brasiliensis. Many of these small co-ops are either unaware of or unable to afford sustainable farming practices. The GPSNR is trying to change that and help them develop environmentally sound practices. Given the long term strategic importance of tires in the trucking industry, supporting their efforts will help ensure the sustainability of NR to keep things like victory speeds in the history books where they belong.
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