ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
INTERNATIONAL MINING PROFILES
In It for the Long Haul
How Ideanomics is Facilitating the Transition to Electric Heavy Trucks
he path towards lower global carbon
emissions is complex and full of tradeoffs,
but there is one big, low-hanging fruit in
transportation – converting high torque, heavily
polluting diesel trucks used in mines and other
“short haul” industrial settings to full electric
vehicle (EV) battery power.
Ideanomics, through its Mobile Energy Group
(MEG) subsidiary, and in partnership with
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) is
tackling the heavy truck problem head on by
enabling the conversion to EV technology of
heavy commercial vehicles beginning with
mining in China. The company is leading the
way with innovative financing designed to
accelerate adoption at the industrial level. Once
the model is perfected there, it will be expanded
to the heavy truck business worldwide and
across multiple businesses, to ports, airports
and heavy industry.
Heavy truck
pollution is orders of
magnitude greater
than passenger cars.
In China’s Inner
Mongolia, heavy
mining trucks are
just 3% of all
vehicles but their
exhaust represents
between 18% and
60% of four major
pollutants – carbon
monoxide (18%),
hydrocarbons (23%),
nitrogen oxides (53%) and particulate matter
(60%) 1 .
China is a vast country. The scale of its use of
T
10 International Mining | MARCH 2020
heavy trucks nationwide is in the hundreds of
thousands. Replacing medium and short-
distance coal trucks in one coal-rich province
alone would be the equivalent of taking 36
million polluting passenger cars off the road,
according to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region Government.
Considering just
particulate matter – the
dust, smoke and soot of
air pollution – converting
heavy trucks in the region
to EV would reduce
contamination by 76%.
Heavy truck design proposed unique
challenges to the electric vehicle manufacturing
industry. For example, a medium sized car
requires around 180 to 320 NM of torque versus
a heavy truck which requires between 1,000 and
2,000 NM. This significant difference required
CATL to design special EV batteries and storage
solutions to meet the substantial energy
demands of these specialised vehicles.
Moving wholesale toward new forms of
transportation creates a financial conundrum for
the heavy truck business. Banks find it harder to
finance EV projects because there’s no track
record yet for battery-driven heavy trucks and
the resulting residual value over time.
Calculating depreciation, and thus financing
terms, is impeding fleet operators’ ability to
receive the financing necessary to transform
their vehicles to EV.
Ideanomics is filling the financing gap by
inviting capital from insurance pools to invest
and setting up 100% financing for the operators
through leasing firms. Ideanomics also launched
a battery manufacturer buyback program to help
with the residual value concerns.
Innovative financing for trucks and batteries,
along with electricity as the energy required to
power EV, can bring significant cost savings to
operators and make quick conversion to EV
financially feasible. MEG expects to launch its
heavy truck initiative in partnership with CATL in
2020 and will include battery manufacturer
buyback programs and other options that will
help support flexible financing.
The toll of heavy truck pollution
We need heavy trucks, but they need not
damage the environment. Boosted by legislation
and subsidies, the combination of performance
and cost that EV offers, along with a compelling
ROI model in terms of fuel savings, are
motivating factors for commercial fleet
operators. EV is transforming heavy commercial
vehicles. Financing and clean energy leadership
from companies such as Ideanomics and CATL
point toward a future of decreasing carbon
emissions alongside steady economic growth.
1. 2018 Motor Vehicle Environmental Management
Annual Report issued by the Ministry of Ecology and
Environment of China
MEG enables the conversion of heavily
polluting diesel trucks used in mines and other
industrial settings to full electric battery power
Ideanomics
55 Broadway, 19th Floor,
New York, NY 10006
USA
Tony Sklar, VP of Communications
[email protected]