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Mobility: Alternative Fuel Freight

 
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Why is this a Climate Smart indicator? 

  • Freight vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles, are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions - according to latest estimates, around 8 percent of total communitywide emissions, and about 14 percent of communitywide transportation emissions. 

  • If more heavy goods vehicles used alternative fuels, this would reduce our emissions. It would also reduce air and stormwater pollution. This would particularly benefit communities of color and low-income communities, which are disproportionately located near freeways that are major truck routes. 

  • Fully electric vehicles (also known as Battery Electric Vehicles, or BEVs) require little maintenance, saving money and time. In addition, both fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids save money on fuel costs. 

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator? 

In Progress/Ongoing 

  • Work funded by the Delivering Zero Emissions Communities grant to identify and begin to address barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles by local delivery companies

About the data 

Sources  

Vehicle population estimates for Santa Clara County from the California Air Resources Board’s EMFAC2021 Emissions Inventory model. The EMFAC2021 model provides data for a long list of different vehicle types (described in Appendix 4 of the User’s Guide). This metric is based on data for heavy-duty vehicle types that are often used for moving freight (T6 CAIRP Class 4-8, T6 Instate Delivery Class 4-7, T6 Instate Tractor Class 6-7, T6 OOS Class 4-7, T7 NNOOS Class 8, T7 NOOS Class 8, T7 Other Port Class 8, T7 POAK Class 8, T7 Tractor Class 8). For this metric, “alternative fuels” includes compressed natural gas (CNG) and electric vehicles, but as of 2022, the EMFAC2021 model estimates that there are no electric heavy-duty freight vehicles in Santa Clara County. 

Limitations  

The EMFAC2021 model is based on California Department of Motor Vehicles data for the years 2000 to 2019.  

The finest level at which the EMFAC2021 model provides data is at the county level. This metric assumes that the percentage of alternative-fuel heavy-duty freight vehicles in San José is the same as the percentage of alternative-fuel heavy-duty freight vehicles in Santa Clara County as a whole. 

Some vehicles in Santa Clara County of the types used to calculate this metric may actually be used for other uses, and some other types of heavy-duty vehicles may also occasionally be used for moving freight. 

Last updated 

August 2023