Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) and Volvo Group North America have created the Powering America’s Commercial Transportation (PACT) coalition, which the companies say is focused on education and advocacy for accelerating the construction of nationwide infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty (M/HD) zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). The coalition said PACT’s purpose is to overcome the barriers delaying access to ZEV infrastructure and enhancing national climate policies to address the infrastructure needs of M/HD ZEVs.

Coalition membership is open to all stakeholders with an interest in accelerating the deployment of zero-emission commercial vehicles and the requisite infrastructure, including other OEMs, infrastructure developers, electric utilities and grid operators and others, Daimler said. Other founding members include ABB E-mobility, Burns & McDonnell, BC Hydro, Greenlane, Prologis Inc. and Voltera.

According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, nearly 700,000 chargers will be needed nationwide to accommodate the one million Class 4-8 M/HD ZEVs anticipated to be deployed by 2030, which will consume 140,000 megawatts of electricity every day, equivalent to the monthly energy needs of over 100 million American homes.

“Decarbonizing the commercial transportation sector – the fleets that keep America moving – is critical to meeting our nation’s climate goals. But the transition to zero-emission vehicles is stalling without the deployment of the needed charging infrastructure,” John O’Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Truck North America said. “Through PACT, we aim to accelerate this infrastructure buildout so that fleets can adopt ZEVs at scale and we can all benefit from impactful emissions reductions as quickly as possible.”

While supporting the deployment of commercial ZEV infrastructure, PACT will not advocate for a specific vehicle, power generation or utility distribution technologies, the Coalition said. PACT exists to educate stakeholders about infrastructure challenges that hamper M/HD ZEV adoption in the marketplace and work with stakeholders to find solutions for the benefit of all interested parties.