Source: HDT
NFI had just gotten into the West Coast drayage business in a big way with the 2017 purchase of CalCartage when Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi electric truck. NFI executives immediately saw drayage as an ideal use case for such a truck.
So NFI’s team went to talk to its legacy truck makers.
“We said, ‘If this is something you’re thinking about, we want to be a part of it,” says Jim O’Leary, VP of Assets for New Jersey-based NFI.
The following year, NFI and Penske were chosen to test Freightliner’s electric trucks as part of its Innovation Fleet, followed by being part of the Volvo LIGHTS project, both of which were designed to get real-world input into Class 8 electric-truck development.
It’s a journey that has led NFI to the official unveiling Feb. 27 of 50 Class 8 electric trucks, running out of a new electric charging depot at its warehouse in Ontario, California.
