Medium- and heavy-duty trucks coming under zero-emission mandates next year – Washington State has linked itself with California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) program, meaning starting in 2025 truck manufacturers must sell a certain percentage of zero-emission heavy and medium duty trucks in Washington.
The following information from the Department of Ecology illustrates the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) sales-percentage requirements in Washington in the coming years based on truck class:
Concerns have been raised about this, not the least of which is that truck manufacturers, according to the Washington Trucking Associations, are withholding truck deliveries until a dealer can demonstrate that a ZEV truck has been sold. This means dealers, whether they are in-state or out-of-state, who do not sell a ZEV truck in Washington will not receive legacy vehicle allocations, which means that truck dealers cannot sell diesel trucks in Washington State.
Another concern is that California officials wrote, adopted and implemented the ACT program for the state of California. But Washington is not California. California is the fifth-largest economy in the world and state officials there have been building support for decarbonization for decades, including funding robust incentive programs for clean commercial trucks. Furthermore, under the ACT program, California is a year ahead of Washington with a more gradual on-ramp of 4% ZEV sales mandate on model year 2024 medium and heavy-duty trucks. These facts alone place Washington at a disadvantage. A steeper compliance curve, fewer incentives, and competition against such a large economy means the market for both supply and demand of zero emission M/HD trucks will experience challenges.
AGC invites feedback from members about this issue. Share your feedback with AGCW Chief Lobbyist Jerry VanderWood. In particular, if your organization has operations or offices in California, let us know how they feel things are working so far with regard to California’s ACT program.