The war on EVs is far from over, but signs of electrification victory are already emerging as the war in Iran continues to push the cost of fuel through the roof. The latest examples come from the politically blue East Coast states of New York and New Jersey along with the similarly blue West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington, where plans are in the works to stimulate more activity in the electric truck field.
Electric Trucks Save Big Bucks
In a last-ditch effort to distract the public from his war in Iran, the Epstein files, and a growing list of grifty corruption scandals, US President Donald Trump has finally decided to…change his hair. True fact. Over the Labor Day weekend, the President transitioned from Beach Boy Blonde to Fred Trump Brown. That distracted the media to some extent, but one bottle of Nice ‘n’ Easy won’t push down the price of diesel, which hit a record high of $5.85 per gallon on September 4 according to the AAA gas price tracker.
Against this backdrop, stakeholders in the electric truck field are licking their chops. Back in 2021, when diesel prices spiked during the COVID crisis, the University of California-Berkeley ran the numbers and came up with a figure of 13% savings to run a long haul electric truck compared to diesel, with a drop in the cost of batteries contributing to a lifetime savings of up to $200,000.
UC Berkeley also anticipated a 50% savings by 2030, which is just around the corner. Whether or not that forecast proves true remains to be seen, but in the meantime the International Council on Clean Transportation has developed a meticulously calibrated total cost of ownership calculator, which enables EV-curious fleet managers and operators to see for themselves. The ICCT TCO calculator covers commercial vehicles from Class 2b–3 medium-duty delivery vans and the like, to Class 8 long-haul trucks.
That’s all well and good, but a solid network of truck-friendly EV charging stations is needed to help get fleet managers and owner-operators get over the heebie-jeebies of switching from diesel to electric, and that’s where the East and West coasts have swung into action.
$451 Million From The US EPA Clean Ports Program…Wait, What?
On the East Coast side, the latest news involves a $451 million grant issued in 2024 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the busiest container seaport on the East Coast. The Port Authority oversees facilities shared between New York and New Jersey on both sides of the Hudson River, including bridges, tunnels, and transit assets such as the beloved PATH train and the Midtown Bus Terminal.
The 2024 grant was a carve-out from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through EPA’s Clean Ports program, aimed at accelerating the transition to low- and zero-emission trucks, ships, and cargo equipment at the container ports.
Somehow that grant survived the Trump chopper. If you can figure out how that came to be, you deserve a medal and please share your insights in the discussion thread.
Regardless of how and why the funding remains intact, on September 3, 2026, the Port Authority announced that $45 million from the Clean Ports pot has been earmarked for a partnership with the nonprofit electrification organization CALSTART, aimed at kicking up the adoption of electric trucks and other electrified equipment at Port Authority facilities.
At $39 million, the bulk of the CALSTART partnership goes to support the purchase of zero-emission trucks, yard tractors and on-site supporting infrastructure. The remaining $5 million is slated for up to five off-site electric truck charging hubs, to be located within 10 miles of a Port Authority seaport or marine terminal.
Starting now-ish, staff from the Port Authority and CALSTART will begin reaching out to stakeholders in the trucking business to solicit interest. Not leaving everything up to digital communications, the outreach will include in-person presentations.
CALSTART is also tasked with developing dashboards to track the progress of both programs. “These tools will monitor deployment, vehicle performance, and charger utilization across port operations before being fully transferred to the Port Authority in 2028,” the Port Authority explains.
That’s just for starters. The Port Authority also notes that the Clean Ports grant covers other programs beyond the CALSTART partnership, including funds for electrifying cargo equipment at marine terminals, and zero emission plug-in stations that enable vessels at berth to shut down their auxiliary engines.
“A separate $3 million EPA planning grant will fund the creation of a Port Community Advisory Council,” the Port Authority adds, with the aim of improving clean energy workforce training and job opportunities in the region.
Meanwhile, The US, Canada, And Mexico…What?
The Port Authority’s EV-friendly announcement is larded with sustainability references, amounting to a Port Authority-sized poke in the eye of Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, who collaborated to prematurely kill the all-important federal EV tax credit last year.
Another, even bigger poke is coming from California, Oregon, and Washington State, all three of which have embraced Trump’s #1 and #2 enemies — Canada and Mexico — to support a new electric truck transportation corridor program.
On August 26, elected officials from the three West Coast states joined with officials from British Columbia in Canada and Baja California in Mexico to announce the new “BC2BC” (British Columbia to Baja California) ZEV corridor on Interstate-5, enabling electric trucks to travel from one end to the other with the assurance of charging station availability all along the way.
“Once completed, freight shippers and operators will be able to charge their zero-emissions fleets along the entire West Coast with the initial buildout including 20 electric charging stations and 3 hydrogen stations,” the BC2BC program elaborates.
There’s plenty more where that came from. According to BC2BC, truck traffic on the I-5 corrider currently averages 10,000 vehicles per day. Twenty EV charging stations and three hydrogen stations (for fuel cell electric trucks) is a healthy start, but many more will be needed once the I-5 is saturated with electric trucks, which it will be if all goes according to plan.
Tesla, for one, is in there pitching with the new Class 8 Semi long haul truck. Now in volume production to positive reviews, the Semi is giving Tesla some breathing room between the Cybertruck flop and the underwhelming (and questionable) Cybercab rollout in Texas last week.
Among other stakeholders, keep an eye on ZM Trucks, the US branch of Japan’s ZO Motors (an arm of the Hong Kong conglomerate ZO Future Group). In 2024 ZM Trucks announced plans to manufacture both battery electric and fuel cell electric trucks in the US with a concentration on “Baby 8” trucks as well as Classes 4-6, and Class 8. The plans were still in place after Trump took office last year.
ZM’s press room has been rather quiet since August of 2025, when the company announced its new headquarters and factory in the city of Fontana, California. However, the company exhibited proof of life at the official BC2BC launch event at the Port of Long Beach, which featured one of it trucks alongside Tesla and Volvo.
As a further poke at Trump’s psychotic isolationism, BC2BC is part of the global Drive to Zero commercial vehicle electrification initiative, supported in the US by CALSTART, which seems to be rather busy these days. In addition to CALSTART/Drive to Zero, other partners in BC2BC are the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the California State Transportation Agency.
Photo: The electric truck firm ZM Trucks is among those looking forward to a spurt in sales despite last year’s sharp U-turn in federal energy policy (courtesy of ZM Trucks).
