Ryder announces new EV program to help fleets transition to zero emissions

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Updated Oct 19, 2023
RyderElectric+ will largely focus on light and medium-duty EVs like GM's all-electric BrightDrop van shown above.
RyderElectric+ will largely focus on light and medium-duty EVs like GM's all-electric BrightDrop van shown above.
Ryder

Ryder System introduces a new EV program to guide fleets through the process of transitioning to electric trucks and vans.

RyderElectric+, which was unveiled today at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, California, provides electrification advisors, vehicles, charging, telematics, and maintenance all for one price.

“By combining our expertise, advisory services, and relationships with vehicle manufacturers and charging companies, as well as our integration with telematics providers, we help companies build and maintain an electric fleet that fits their needs,” said Karen Jones, Ryder CMO and head of new product innovation. “We aim to help make the integration of electric vehicles as seamless as possible by offering solutions that are streamlined through one provider at one cost.”

By partnering with customers throughout the full journey of fleet electrification, RyderElectric+ will serve as a centralized source for Ryder’s fleet-management services in financing, facility infrastructure, charging and maintenance for commercial EVs.

The program includes electrification advisors who will help customers assess vehicle fit, estimate potential emission reduction and total cost impact, evaluate charging service requirements, provide guidance on availability of potential grants and build out an EV transition roadmap, Ryder said.

The new solution also provides access to Ryder’s inventory of advanced vehicle technology that would include financing, warranty, and safety options, as well as the company’s national maintenance footprint, 24/7 emergency roadside assistance, on-the-road usage/telematics for fleet insights, and EV chargers at select Ryder locations, the company added.

“As demand and adoption of commercial EVs continues to accelerate across the transportation and logistics industries, this latest offering provides Ryder customers with an end-to-end solution for zero-emission commercial fleet management, deployment, fueling, and maintenance,” adds Carlo Rodriguez, group director for advanced vehicle technology for Ryder.

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Ryder recently announced its plan to introduce 4,000 BrightDrop Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 electric vans to its lease and rental fleet through 2025. To date, Ryder’s current fleet and options of advance vehicle technology include Ford E-Transits, International eMV, Lonestar EVs with Dana’s electric powertrain, and Freightliner MT50e, eM2, and eCascadia. Ryder also has Tesla Semi tractors reserved and continues to work with multiple OEM’s to provide new EV solutions to its customers.

Rodriguez told CCJ that demand is high for Ryder’s EV inventory particularly in the wake of tighter emissions regulations from the California Air Resources Board.

“As you could imagine, light duty is the focus and most available to scale not only because of the price point, but also because of the charging infrastructure that goes with it,” Rodriguez said. “Folks all the time are putting up level two AC charging for their consumer passenger car. If you need to adopt a few light duty vans across your facilities, you could do something similar where that's not the case with medium duty and heavy duty. So light duty is definitely our focus. We're still working those medium duty, heavy duty deals and some of those yard tractor deals but that's not at a point right now where it's at scale.”

Ryder continues to expand EV maintenance services and will handle all maintenance needs for their electric trucks and vans.

“We're going to be doing full-service maintenance on these vehicles and some of it takes special high voltage training and EV training that we're doing in-house,” Rodriguez said. “Several of our shops have that already because of the vehicles that we have in our fleet with respect to rental and other operations. And then as we sell lease deals into other domiciles, then there's a whole project plan of offering certain levels of training depending on the amount of work we're going to be doing.”

With 4,000 BrightDrop vans heading to Ryder, maintenance services for those vans and other electric vans and trucks are being expanded at various Ryder locations.

“We’re really excited about the maintenance aspect and partnering closely with BrightDrop on that, with respect to maintenance, to be able to increase uptime and not have to necessarily go somewhere else for maintenance or go back to the OEM,” Rodriguez said.  

Ryder’s maintenance offerings that are in place for its internal combustion vehicles are being expanded to include EVs.

“Ryder has three delivery modes for ICE vehicles: Ryder branch, mobile maintenance and onsite maintenance,” said Rodriguez who sees mobile maintenance playing particularly well with EVs.

“They're parked, they're charging, there are opportunities there. And then if customer has an onsite facility with us, they already have a fleet of vehicles. It's a great opportunity where you already have a dedicated onsite with Ryder running the shop and its customer's property to implement an EV.”

Hydrogen Fuel Cell & BEV Survey
The following survey was sent as a link in an email cover message in February 2023 to the newsletter lists for Overdrive and CCJ. After approximately two weeks, a total of 176 owner-operators under their own authority, 113 owner-operators leased or assigned to a carrier and 82 fleet executives and 36 fleet employees from fleets with 10 or more power units had completed and submitted the questionnaire for a total of 407 qualified responses. Cross-tabulations based on respondent type are provided for each question when applicable.
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