Independent Contractor - October 2019

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Daimler Trucks delivers first 2 eCascadias
for commercial use in Southern California
Nine days after Daimler Trucks North America
said it getting ready to deliver to customers
the first Freightliner eCascadias, they arrived as
scheduled on Wednesday, August 21, at Penske
Truck Leasing, based in Reading, Pennsylvania;
and NFI, of Camden, New Jersey.
The trucks are part of Freightliner’s Electric
Innovation Fleet, and both customers will use
their vehicles to test the integration of battery
electric trucks into large-scale fleet operations in
Southern California.
“Co-creation is the cornerstone of DTNA’s
strategy to rapidly develop and deploy battery
electric trucks,” said Roger Nielsen, president
and CEO of DTNA. “DTNA’s partnerships with
customers like Penske and NFI provide valuable
feedback for the final design of our trucks, as
well as the design of the surrounding e-mobility
ecosystem. DTNA’s holistic approach is vital to
advancing viable transportation solutions from
which society, as a whole, will benefit.”
Nielsen said the Freightliner Innovation Fleet
is supported by a partnership between DTNA
and the South Coast Air Quality Management
District (South Coast AQMD), which focuses on
improving air quality in the South Coast Basin
and which partially funded the Innovation Fleet
with a nearly $16 million grant. Freightliner
eCascadias and medium-duty electric Freightliner
eM2s from the Innovation Fleet are operated
within the South Coast AQMD jurisdiction.
“We are excited to be a part of this groundbreaking
project that will directly impact local
Southern California communities, especially
NFI and Penske Truck Leasing were the recipients of the first two
Freightliner eCascadia models built by Daimler Trucks North America.
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