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State of Sustainable Fleets 2021: Market and Trends Brief
The 2021 Market and Trends Brief provides insight into the significant trends and developments that occurred over the course of 2020—a landmark year for the clean fleet industry.
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Fleet Technology Miniguides
Access highly visual, concise fleet guides for the industry’s leading clean vehicle drivetrain technologies.
2021 Key Findings
GROWTH OF CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES CONTINUES, DESPITE OUTLIER YEAR
Even in an extreme outlier year, the growth of clean technologies continued with an increase in fleet orders and deliveries for natural gas and battery-electric vehicles as well as for lower carbon renewable fuels.
Additionally, 83% of surveyed early adopter fleets indicate they plan to increase their use of clean vehicle technologies in the coming years.
CLEAN FUELS CAN OUTPERFORM IN MANY FLEET SECTORS
Fleets report superior total cost of ownership and fuel costs savings when operating on the mature technologies of compressed natural gas in the refuse, transit, and dedicated heavy-duty sectors and propane in the school, paratransit, and urban delivery sectors.
BATTERY-ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE POISED TO BECOME A LEADING CLEAN FLEET TECHNOLOGY IN 3-5 YEARS
Commitments by several large fleets will require vehicle deployments in the tens of thousands per year. While vehicle costs remain high for this developing technology and OEMs are just beginning to enter serial production, investment to build this market is already enormous and growing.
BIG INVESTMENTS LAY A FOUNDATION FOR A FUEL CELL FUTURE
Fuel producers and vehicle makers continued investing hundreds of millions globally towards billions of dollars committed to build a foundation for fuel cells, doubling the number of models coming to market, mostly for transit and Class 8 tractors.
SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENTS BUILD THE CLEAN TECHNOLOGY MARKET
Two powerful drivers—policy mandates and ambitious sustainability goals—are creating demand for all clean technologies in the fleet market and will continue to drive growth.
CLEAN FLEET TECHNOLOGIES GET EVEN CLEANER
Sustainability benefits, including the emissions reduction potential of vehicles and fuel, are improving for nearly all existing clean vehicle technologies, including efficiency, renewable fuels, and cleaner vehicles. Sustainability benefits remain a top motivator for fleets.
Watch the 2021 Virtual Launch Event
The State of Sustainable Fleets: Clean Fleets After COVID
Listen in as industry experts launch this year’s market update and hear what the latest fleet data tells us about our new clean fleet reality.
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About the Report
The State of Sustainable Fleets report gathers real-world data directly from early-adopter fleets across the U.S. to provide deep sector-specific insights into the adoption of natural gas, propane, battery electric, and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, against a baseline of diesel and gasoline vehicles. The analysis includes public, private, and for-hire fleets, including school, municipal/shuttle, urban delivery, refuse, utility, transit, short-haul, and long-haul sectors. This first-of-its-kind report includes unique insights into vehicle sale trends, anticipated vehicle development timelines, real-world infrastructure and fuel costs, and the growing adoption of renewable fuels.
The on-road transportation industry is at a pivotal moment.
Key factors and major market forces are aligning to make this a critical time for the future of the industry.
Emissions on the Rise
With global greenhouse gas emissions and smog-forming pollutants continuing to rise, the industry is under growing pressure to rapidly adopt and deploy clean vehicle technologies.
Competing Technologies Emerging
Multiple promising vehicle technologies are emerging simultaneously, with more industry investment fueling innovation than ever before.
Mounting Sustainability Pressures
Globally, private companies and public regulators are stepping up to set ambitious sustainability goals and putting aggressive strategies in place to meet them.
Pace of Technology Quickening
After decades of research and development, the industry is moving from pilot projects to deployments of new technologies in real-world applications across sectors.
Determining a Path Forward
On-road fleets are weighing their options to determine which zero and near-zero emission vehicles can meet their operational needs—today and well into the future.