Zero-Emission Trucking: Driving the Transition to a Circular Economy
In May of 2023, Nucor made its first zero-emissions delivery of steel, launching a partnership with PGT Trucking and Nikola focused on building a clean energy supply chain.
PGT Trucking is the first flatbed trucking company to actively grow its fleet with zero emissions equipment through its Future of Flatbed™ initiative and is one of the leading manufacturers of commercial electric vehicles and related components and infrastructure. Nikola is a company that is globally transforming the transportation industry as a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure.
“PGT Trucking is proud to partner with companies like Nikola and Nucor who share a common vision and commitment to a greener future,” said Gregg Troian, PGT Trucking President. “We are confident that these relationships will help guide PGT’s Future of Flatbed™ initiatives, allowing us to achieve our goal of a 35% reduction in emissions of our company-owned equipment by the year 2025.”
The Nikola Battery-Electric Semi-Truck will be used in short-haul deliveries of Nucor steel products directly to our customers. Getting that low emission steel directly from our mills to our customers in a sustainable, safe, and cost-effective way is our priority. To make this happen, we have installed charging stations at multiple sites to make the most of this first of its kind electric flatbed truck.
The Battery-Electric Semi-TruckA delivery made using the Battery-Electric Semi-Truck is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 40% and create a 20% savings in energy cost. Every trip! The BEV truck is permanently assigned to a route supporting Nucor’s sheet steel mill in Hickman, Arkansas with up to 40 deliveries of steel coils to a transloading facility in West Memphis, Arkansas per week. The regular 120-mile round trip from the Nucor plant to the transload facility made it an ideal route for a BEV flatbed truck based on the BEVs charge and range parameters.
Using BEV trucks on this route instead of a standard flatbed is estimated to save about 800 gallons of diesel fuel each week! On an annual basis, that translates to savings of more than 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel and a reduction of 407.2 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
“Nikola is proud to partner with PGT Trucking to play a role in Nucor’s inaugural shipment of low GHG intensity steel with our Class 8 Tre battery-electric truck,” said Nikola Global Head, FCEV Market Development Jason Roycht. “This level of teamwork between product manufacturer, transportation provider, and vehicle manufacturer is exactly what it will take to evolve the industry to zero-emission trucking.”
The green economy is being built on steel, and the steel that it is built from matters. Nucor is leading our industry in decarbonization. Our circular, electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking process uses scrap steel as its primary feedstock to produce high quality new steel with electricity. Our circular process has a greenhouse gas intensity 1/3 the global average of extractive, blast furnace steelmakers for Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
And we aren’t stopping there. We are committed to a net-zero 2050 science-based greenhouse gas (GHG) target. [Learn more about our sustainability efforts.](https://nucor.com/sustainability)
“For more than five decades, Nucor has been built on the sustainable model of producing steel with a low carbon footprint,” according to Al Behr, Nucor EVP of Plate & Structural Products. “Even though we are one of the cleanest steelmakers in the world, we know we need to continue to lower our greenhouse gas intensity. This partnership with PGT and Nikola is just one example of the innovative ways Nucor is working to reduce its carbon emissions.”
Nucor’s partnership with PGT Trucking and Nikola is just the latest of the many ways Nucor is investing in transformative technologies that increase access to clean reliable energy sources and decrease the carbon footprint of making and delivering sustainable steel to our customers.