Why one zero-emission truck dealer wants big rigs to wait

Johannes Ariens sells hydrogen semis, and he thinks the push to clean up trucking is aimed too high. Incentive programs and the broader industry are fixated on Class 7 and 8 tractors, said Ariens, CEO of Range Zero Emissions, in an interview with FreightWaves. The trucks ready to go electric today are medium-duty Class 4, 5, and 6 models, he said.

Range Zero Emissions is a dealer group that sells only zero-emission commercial vehicles. Its brands run from Zero Motorcycles up to Class 8 trucks, and it has no tie to Range Energy, the electric-trailer company that shares its name.

The lineup grew in August. Range became an authorized dealer for Hyundai’s XCIENT Fuel Cell, a hydrogen Class 8 truck, with Washington as its primary territory. It also folded Ziegler Truck Group’s zero-emissions business into the Range brand and bought the West Coast operations of Ethero Truck & Energy. Together the two deals moved the company from one Pacific Northwest location into the Midwest and California, Ariens said.

Most commercial truck users run medium-duty trucks, he said, and many of them can charge on the kind of power a small business already has.

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