Electric Vehicle Roadmap Submitted to Texas Legislators

Austin, Texas – Most of the parking spaces in front of the State Capitol were full on Tuesday morning. This is nothing new, but what was different was the types of vehicles parked in the locations.

Bumper to bumper, between Congress and Brazos, they were all electric. They were part of the backdrop for a press conference for the pro-EV coalition.

“This is the key to the future. This is a way to save money. This is a way to prevent environmental pollution. And more importantly, it’s a way to create jobs,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith of the Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance.

The alliance, known as TXetra, is a partnership with Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation. This coalition proposes a plan for the development of electric transport to lawmakers.

“The point is that electric cars are coming. This is a global wave. In Texas, we have to be prepared to have the legal framework in place to deal with them,” said Michael Osborne of TXetra.

In this session, legislation was filed to govern what electric vehicles would bring. Things like preparing for an increase in the number of charging stations in the grid and replacing gas tax revenue cuts for the state highway department.

The idea of ​​an annual flat fee for electric vehicle owners is opposed by the coalition.

“We think the only fair way to do this is the way we did it with petrol cars. And it’s based on how many miles we drive. We do this with gas cars because we pay per gallon of gas. So we just think that it should be variable and depend on the mileage. And this can be done at the annual technical inspection,” Osborne said.

The group’s roadmap does acknowledge a few issues. There is opposition to the extraction of raw materials for batteries, as well as problems with the disposal of batteries. There is also a potential problem with the supply chain. One of the main suppliers of raw materials are countries such as China.

This electric revolution is also being felt in vehicles such as school buses. But the big breakthrough could be for those who carry cargo. Several large all-electric vehicles were parked in front of the transport department. Trucks like Denton’s Peterbilt can reduce urban pollution, but they are still expensive and have limited range.

“It’s actually very easy to want a zero-emission, zero-carbon car, but it’s extremely difficult when you start to enter the truck market,” Peterbilt’s Bill Kahn said.

The hybrid truck on display at the Capitol is the solution to the long haul problem. Hyliion, owned by Cedar Park, makes a powertrain that can travel a thousand miles. According to company engineer Mike Campanella, high mileage is possible because the batteries are charged by an onboard natural gas engine.

“Production will start in the fourth quarter of this year. We are going to release 200 trucks for customers as our commitment. We have about 2,000 orders in line,” Campanella said.

To meet demand, Hyliion is expanding its workforce. The choice of small electric vehicles is also growing. It is estimated that around 130 different models will be available by 2026, ranging from sedans to SUVs to trucks.