California is racing to electrify trucks. Can the industry keep up?
This story was co-published with KCET, part of the donor-supported community institution, the Public Media Group of Southern California. Subscribe to its newsletter here.
Before the sun rose on a cold January morning, Alex López navigated an 18-wheeler through busy traffic on the 710 freeway. He was headed to the Port of Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles, to retrieve a shipping container and haul it to a warehouse. In the eight years he’s been driving trucks, it was a process López had done thousands of times.
“There’s usually nothing new with the routine we have as truckers,” he said.
But on this day, there was something new: He was driving an electric truck.
López drives for Hight Logistics, a family-owned company that moves cargo in and out of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. …