US EPA awards $735 million for zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles

12 December 2024

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced more than $735 million in awards to assist in the purchase of more than 2,400 zero-emission vehicles through its first Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program, created by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Approximately 70% of the announced grants will support the purchase of electric school buses, complementing the EPA’s Clean School Bus program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has awarded nearly $3 billion for nearly 9,000 clean school buses to date.

Other proposed replacement vehicles include battery-electric box trucks, cargo trucks, emergency vehicles, refuse/recycling haulers, school buses, shuttle buses, step vans, transit buses, utility vehicles, and other vocational vehicles, as well as a small number of hydrogen fuel cell transit buses.

The Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program will replace existing internal combustion engine heavy-duty vehicles with zero tailpipe emission vehicles. It will also support the development of vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure, as well as the training of workers to deploy these new zero-emission technologies.

The program will accelerate the adoption and deployment of eligible Class 6 and 7 zero-emission vehicles, the EPA said. Vehicles eligible for replacement include older vehicles powered by internal combustion engines that pre-date recent EPA emission standards. Across the USA, more than 3 million Class 6 and Class 7 vehicles are currently in use, spanning a wide variety of vehicle types and vocations.

The awarded funding of $735 million represents an average subsidy of $306 thousand per vehicle.

The funds have been awarded to 70 applicants across 27 states. Among these states, California will receive $135 million to fund 13 projects that will purchase 455 zero-emission vehicles.

Source: US EPA