Skip to main content

Zero emission delivery vehicle project begins in Houston

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) has teamed up with the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) and Smith Electric Vehicles Corporation to reduce vehicle emissions from delivery trucks in the region. As part of a US Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored effort, local fleets will replace existing diesel delivery vehicles with thirty all-electric medium and heavy-duty Smith Newton trucks for daily operations in the Houston-Galveston area.
September 2, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) has teamed up with the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) and 3822 Smith Electric Vehicles Corporation to reduce vehicle emissions from delivery trucks in the region.  As part of a US Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored effort, local fleets will replace existing diesel delivery vehicles with thirty all-electric medium and heavy-duty Smith Newton trucks for daily operations in the Houston-Galveston area.

The project is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of all-electric delivery vehicles to perform at the same level of operation as similarly-sized diesel delivery vehicles while significantly reducing emissions and petroleum use.  By deploying emission trucks for this program, H-GAC expects to reduce petroleum consumption by over 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel over the two-year demonstration period. The project will have additional impact with an expected reduction in GHG emissions by 37.5 million tons of carbon equivalents per year and an expected reduction in criteria pollutants of over 2,000 tons per year.

The Smith Newton trucks include the company’s proprietary Smith Power, with variable 40-120 kWh battery pack options; Smith Drive, and Smith Link, an onboard system for monitoring the vehicle’s vital statistics.  The vehicles that will be deployed under this grant are based on Smith’s latest production model Series 2000, which has been fully deployed in several locations across the country.

Each Smith Newton will be delivered with an electric vehicle charging station (EVSE).  Fully recharging the vehicle will take approximately 6 to 10 hours per night, depending on the size of the battery pack and the state of charge when the vehicle returns to the fleet depot.

The H-GAC zero emission truck project will serve as a pioneer for this innovative clean technology by helping fleets deploy all-electric delivery trucks that will improve their fleet operations and benefit the local community. CTE, a non-profit and leader in alternative transportation technology deployments, will manage the project, collect operational data, and report on the project’s impact.   The combined efforts of project partners will help further the objective of developing a market for this advanced electric transportation technology.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • EU AdaptIVe automated driving project begins work
    February 5, 2014
    The European research project AdaptIVe (Automated Driving Applications & Technologies for Intelligent Vehicles), a consortium of 29 partners, began work on 1 February. It aims to achieve breakthrough advances that will lead to more efficient and safe automated driving. The consortium, led by Volkswagen, consists of ten major automotive manufacturers, suppliers, research institutes and universities and small and medium-sized businesses. The project has a budget of US$33.7 million and is funded by the Eu
  • Rekor and Kistler combine technologies for WiM projects
    January 30, 2024
    Kistler WiM sensors and Rekor camera systems are synchronised to detect overweight trucks
  • Volocopter to launch air taxi infrastructure for cities within ten years
    April 27, 2018
    Volocopter has unveiled its vision for an air taxi infrastructure for cities which it claims could integrate into transportation systems and provide mobility for up to 10,000 passengers per day. The company expects the technology to be available within the next ten years. The firm says that the electrically-powered aircraft are emission-free and take off and land vertically to maintain safety. Volocopters are based on drone technology and can carry two people over distances of 27km. For the infrastructu
  • Vitronic enforcement technology for French truck toll system
    June 25, 2012
    German company Vitronic has been selected by Thales Group to supply key components for all fixed enforcement gantries for the nationwide truck charging system to be implemented on 15,000km of French roads. The multi-million euro contract is part of the prestigious Ecotaxe project, a distance based charge for trucks. From mid-2013 onwards, all vehicles over 3.5 tons in weight will have to pay a tax on national roads with the fee being collected by means of an onboard GPS satellite system. Vitronic has been s