Zero is the new 100%. That was a message Govi Kannan, senior VP of global product and technology with Mack Trucks brought to the Greentech stage at Truck World.

Govi presented his vision of what trucks will look like in the future, and how the relationships between truck dealers and customers will have to evolve. As we progress towards zero-emission freight transportation there will be several technologies required to achieve zero emissions transport, and the answers will vary by region and application.

Upon the conclusion of his presentation, I had the chance to sit down with Govi to discuss some of his key points.

James Menzies: Walking around the show floor, we see a lot of battery-electric technologies. But you’re firmly of the belief that getting to zero emissions won’t just be battery electric, or battery-electric technologies. In fact, internal combustion will remain a needed technology to get there. Can you expand on that?

Govi Kannan: Absolutely. I think battery-electric technology will be one path. And I think the reason, one of the slides I showed earlier on, battery-electric technology works with shorter range and lower payloads, and when you can come back to the same place every day.

Whereas internal combustion — remember, if you’re going to reduce the carbon footprint from fossil fuels — if we can do that, of course, through additional fuels, such as biofuels, there’s so much biofuel that we can create with all the food waste, etc., or renewable diesel.

We still can produce and work on a lower carbon footprint, although not that we are going to remove carbon so. But batteries today, the technology, whether it’s whatever chemistry, you take NMC, LFP, etc., has certain, you know, if I call it dimensions and weight, etc.

So there’s only so much that you can do with battery today. And obviously, I’m pretty optimistic that with like everything else, they will develop. And when they start to become more advanced, we can use them for additional applications.

Local service

James Menzies: Okay, so it sounds like the right answer for fleet in California might not be the same as the answer for the fleet in Ontario. Are dealers going to have to adjust and become more localized or hyperlocal in dealing with their customers?

Govi Kannan: Yeah, the simple answer is one size doesn’t fit all, right? And therefore, we need to figure out what happens in this local market, in that local application. And I have this pictures, or the notes, of what are the transitional factors, understanding what works is very important, because trying to put it in the wrong application doesn’t get us good results.

Truck-as-a-Service

James Menzies: I believe Mack is one of the first major OEMs to bring to market this concept of Truck-as-a-Service. And you talked about the subscription model. How has that been received in the US? Has that really helped fleets overcome the resistance they have to the new technology?

Govi Kannan: Absolutely. Let me [explain]. I didn’t spend too much time talking about why we created this. One thing is, everybody can talk about Equipment-as-a-Service. And you know, it’s a buzzword, if you don’t use it, then you’re not in the game type of thing.

But why did we do this? When we went around talking to customers, there were two questions in the mind [of] everybody that came up. The first question was, ‘How reliable is this technology? If I transition to this, will it work?’ That was one question.

Second question is, ‘Will this technology be obsolete within two years after me buying it? Am I investing in the right thing?’ So, we wanted to take out the concerns in the minds of people with these two [questions], so that they don’t have to kind of get into something and figure out that they had to live with it.

So, that’s why we created this. And when we did this, we wanted to make sure that we gave them the variability of using mileage as a variable, right? So, if you use more than you pay more, if you use less, you pay less type of thing. So, it’s been received very well.

In fact, like I said, we got an award for innovation in a non-equipment area. That’s really fantastic for us, because we’ve been known as a heavy iron company. But now we are going into the areas of digital solutions.

And our aim is to use offers like this to improve the entire penetration and the adoption of this technology.

Distance does not equal range

James Menzies: Very good. You made the interesting point that distance is not range. And I would like to see you expand on that because I that’s the first I’ve heard that what is the difference between distance and range?

Govi Kannan: I figured that out the tough way, when I first got my EV car. You all know that distance between a Point A and Point B remains the same. So, when I used to drive from my home to my office, let’s pick a number just to make it easy: 100 kilometers, right? That number, the distance remains the same.

Now, when I start my car, it can tell me that it’s got 200 kilometers or miles as the range. But as soon as I start driving, the fact that I might drive over 70 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour, the wind resistance goes up, etc. So, you actually start to consume more range.

When the temperature goes up, you’ll start to consume more range. So, when I went and parked the car in my office, it wasn’t 200 minus 100, and my range was left at 100. No. It was 200 minus 125, and was left with 75.

So, we see that even with our trucks. When one of our trucks is operating in Michigan, and the temperature during the winter was super cold, that’s extra energy needed to actually kind of keep the batteries warm, but also the accessories inside the truck.

So, the range, which [when]they started out was 125 miles ended up being less as they start to use it. So, the way I like to say is, “Distance is fixed, range is not.”

James Menzies: I think that’s a great takeaway, especially for us here in Canada, where we experienced those Michigan-like temperatures. You talked about the tank to wheel emissions; I think we get focused on tailpipe emissions. But there’s more to the equation than that. What is happening at the factory level and the dealer levels in order to be truly an emissions free truck maker?

Govi Kannan: Look, I think, first we’re doing everything we can to develop this vehicle technology, but it’s not simply handing the key and saying, ‘go run it,’ right?

That’s why we have all these training and all these capabilities that we bring to fruition through our dealers, through our regional team and so on. So, it’s not just about the truck alone. That’s number one.

The other thing is that, I don’t know if you’ve heard the concept — I’m sure most of you would have — it’s called a science based target.

So, there are three different phases or initiatives, right? When we as a company — when we start to build stuff, for example — we want to reduce waste at our factory. We have got a program in one of our factories and Roanoke, Virginia. We call it zero-to-landfill, which means we don’t produce anything that will go to a landfill. We will reuse it, and so on and so forth.

So, then you take that, we help with the — of course we are not in the energy utility business — but we are helping with charging, etc., infrastructure. Then we create the tank to tailpipe emission-free, so we go through all of the aspects of this will be in wherever we can to improve the adoption.