Velocity Truck Rental & Leasing, a division of Velocity Vehicle Group, has announced it will be adding 200 battery-electric trucks to its commercial truck rental and full-service truck leasing business. The company has acquired 125 Class 8 Freightliner eCascadia’s and 75 Class 6 & 7 Freightliner eM2’s from Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) to enable its customers to quickly and cost-effectively deploy zero-emission trucks into their operations.

The new rental and leasing fleet, along with supporting infrastructure to charge vehicles in 90 minutes or less, will be a game-changer for companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint. David Deon, president of Velocity Truck Rental and Leasing, said, “The acquisition of our new battery-powered fleet allows our customers the opportunity to go zero-emissions quickly, in addition to offering cost-saving measures through quick-charging infrastructure that is included in our leasing programme.”

The Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 models are battery-powered and have a 230 mile range. The eCascadia is an all-electric version of North America’s best-selling Class 8 truck suited for short-haul and last-mile delivery routes, while the eM2 is a highly manoeuvrable, quiet, and comfortable Class 6-7 EV truck for regional distribution.

Velocity serves on the US Electric Vehicle Council, in partnership with DTNA, and on the Customer Experience Fleet to test the eCascadia in real-world applications. Collectively, the Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 models have been driven more than 1.5 million miles by customer-partners.

“The Velocity team is making considerable investments to help its fleet customers successfully integrate medium- and heavy-duty battery-electric vehicles into their operations, as well as help DTNA make progress toward its global freight electrification goals,” said DTNA SVP, Sales and Marketing, David Carson.

The entire fleet of 200 battery-electric trucks is scheduled to be in full service by 2025, with the first five Freightliner eCascadia trucks currently being deployed to Arrowlink Logistics to support pickups and deliveries at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Kevin Kuo, president of Arrowlink USA said, “Our team is excited to integrate zero-emission Freightliner eCascadia trucks into our port drayage operations so that we can reduce our impact on the local community as we transport freight between Southern California’s busy ports and local warehouses.”

Velocity’s investment also includes the installation of 39 dual-port 150kW chargers at multiple Southern California locations, providing customers with an affordable, reliable, and immediate option to charge battery-electric trucks. The high-powered technology allows the Freightliner eM2 to reach an 80% state of charge in approximately 60 minutes for the Class 6 model and 90 minutes for the Class 7 model. Similarly, the Class 8 Freightliner eCascadia can achieve an 80% state of charge in approximately 90 minutes utilising dual-port charging.

Chargers will be installed at key locations along transit corridors with 17 in Rancho Dominguez, 10 in Fontana, 10 in Industry, and two in San Diego. Velocity’s customers will have access to these high-powered chargers as either their primary or supplementary charging location as part of the lease agreement.