Cary, North Carolina has deployed a Pierce Volterra plug-in hybrid fire truck. The city adopted its first light-duty electrified vehicles a decade ago, and chose to electrify this heavy-duty truck in order to improve public health and air quality, firefighter working conditions, and long-term fleet resilience.

The Pierce Volterra features an Oshkosh parallel-hybrid drivetrain. Both travel and pumping can be powered by batteries or by the internal combustion engine.

The Environmental Defense Fund is using the city’s deployment as a case study to demonstrate how light-duty plug-in vehicle adoption can scale into heavy-duty, mission-critical applications. EDF’s case study is designed to show municipalities how focused deployment, strong cross-sector partnerships and leading-by-example planning can facilitate EV implementation.

EDF’s recommendations based on the group’s electrified fleet case studies:

• Start with applications in which impact and feasibility align for your fleet to transition to plug-in vehicles.
• Strong partnerships make the process easier and build relationships that facilitate future additions. Cary’s project was enabled through collaboration among the town’s leadership, fire department, utility, OEMs and other stakeholders.
• A targeted deployment builds knowledge, confidence and momentum, and provides a framework for other municipal fleets to learn from. EDF’s case study is designed to show how other fleets can replicate Cary’s planning and incorporate coordination into their initial research and transition plans.

Source: Environmental Defense Fund