Governor Schwarzenegger reviewed a Hydrogen-Powered Semi Truck that will help reduce air pollution in California, particularly around the port areas of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Linda Adams told those assembled, that California policies are driving technologies. This California technology was manufactured in California, by Vision Industries Corporation, and is to be used in California.
The electric truck has 535 horsepower, with a 200-mile range on one charge of it's hydrogen fuel cell.
California policy is to reduce greenhouse gases by 25 percent by the year 2020. 30 percent of greenhouse gases are created by transportation.
Martin Schuermann, Vision Industries CEO said a typical short haul diesel truck costs around $110,000, and a Liquid Natural Gas truck costs $170,000 to $200,000. This new truck is currently about $250,000 due to the very low production numbers. Once production reaches the 1,000 to 2,000 range, prices are expected to be between the diesel and LNG trucks. The truck is also 30 to 35 percent cheaper to operate than any diesel truck, especially in short-haul situations, where there is a lot of stop and go traffic, because an electric motor doesn't have to idle. This is especially noticeable when waiting in a queue to pick up a container.
Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger at Viewing of Hydrogen-Powered Semi Truck
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Event: Media Availability, East Steps, State Capitol, Sacramento, California
SECRETARY ADAMS:
Good morning, everyone. I'm Secretary Adams, California EPA. And we're very excited today to be unveiling some new technology in California that will help reduce air pollution, particularly around our port areas in Long Beach and Los Angeles, although this technology can be used anywhere in the state. And this is a perfect example of how California's policies are driving technologies. This is a California success story, California technology manufactured in California and used in California. And I would like to introduce - with us here today, Vision Industries Corporation, Martin Schuermann. Martin?
Gov. Schwarzenegger Views Hydrogen-Powered Semi Truck
Today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger viewed Vision Motor Corporation's 2009 hydrogen-powered Tyrano semi truck, at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California.
Photo: Justin Short, Office of the Governor
SECRETARY ADAMS:
President and CEO. We'll be hearing from Martin shortly. And Lawrence Weisdorn, COO and chairman of Vision Industries Corporation. So we're very - and, of course, Governor Schwarzenegger. How could I forget the boss?
But we're very excited today to unveil this new technology that will be used in California, so now I would like to introduce our governor, who is leading not only in California but in the world, in developing these policies that push this innovation. Governor Schwarzenegger. Thank you.
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Thank you very much, Linda. And first of all, hello everybody, good morning. And this is very exciting, this truck that is behind me here. It's called the Tyrano, is that correct?
MR. SCHUERMANN: Tyrano.
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Tyrano, exactly. And as you know, that we are the first state in the union that have created a policy of reducing our greenhouse gases by 25 percent by the year 2020 and in order to get there, to that goal, certain things have to happen. And one of them is just, for instance, two weeks ago I signed an executive order to create renewable energy, because energy, 20 percent of the greenhouse gases come from energy production. And the same is again the case also when it comes to transportation, to vehicles; 30 percent of the greenhouse gases are created by transportation, by vehicles.
So we have to work very heavily on that area and one of the things that we can do - and you have seen that over these last few months as a matter of fact - from the beginning of the year I've been bringing and introducing different cars here in front of the Capitol. Now, those are sports cars, four door sedans, SUVs that are all hybrid or electric, or hydrogen cars and so on.
And one area that is very important, to improve technology on, is with trucks. It happened to be that I've seen this truck now twice. I've seen it down at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles where they're testing this truck right now. And then, just literally a day later, I saw it at a car show in Santa Monica where they had alternative-fuel vehicles displayed. And this truck created a big sensation, there were a lot of people around it, so I went there and looked at it and I saw again the same truck that I just saw a day before.
And this car has zero emissions. Now, here's a truck that has 535 horsepower and it goes up to a 200-miles range with one charge. And it is, like I said, it's a hydrogen fuel cell electric truck with this new technology.
And this is exactly where the future is and I think that because of the kind of effort that we have made already here in California, we have seen in the port of Long Beach and of Los Angeles, we have seen a reduction of greenhouse gases by 70 percent just in the last two and a half years. It's all because of technology. People are still driving the same size trucks and everything is the same but the technology - the tugboats now have hybrid engines rather than fossil fuel or dirty diesel. And this truck is a perfect example of that, so we are very excited about it.
I want to say thank you to Martin Schuermann, who is the CEO, for coming here today. We want to thank also Lawrence Weisdorn, who is the COO, for coming here and bringing this truck all the way up from Long Beach.
And the other great thing about it is it's produced right here in California and I think that California ought to be at the center in the world when it comes to producing electric alternative fuel vehicles. It's a job creator, again. People always say when you go green then you have to make the economy suffer. But it's not the case, because this company creates great jobs and all of this kind of green technology creates great jobs.
So we want to again thank them for this great, great vehicle and I think now it's time to bring out Martin Schuermann to say a few words about this great truck. Please.
MR. SCHUERMANN:
Thank you. Thanks, Governor.
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Absolutely.
MR. SCHUERMANN:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This truck, the Tyrano, was designed to do short-haul solutions, which is basically there are more than 100,000 short haul trucks currently working in the state of California, more than a million nationwide. Short-haul trucks are usually trucks that are older, on their last legs, some of them. These trucks are less efficient and more polluting. Also, short-haul trucks work in higher populated urban areas, therefore have a larger impact on millions of Californians.
And so this truck is zero emissions, it meets - you know, I mean it basically has more power, more torque, than the regular diesel truck. And we are excited to introduce this to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and, you know, I hope we hope we can put thousands of those to work in the state of California. Thank you.
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:
GOVERNOR: Do you want to say anything? OK, good. Any questions about this? First let's just cover the truck, if there are any questions about that. I know you have other questions. Yeah, please.
QUESTION: I have a question about the truck if (Inaudible) doesn't mind.
GOVERNOR: Yeah, please.
MR. SCHUERMANN: Sure.
QUESTION: Could you just tell us the price (Inaudible)? Because these things obviously cost a lot of money. What would be the price to purchase one of these?
MR. SCHUERMANN: Well, a typical diesel truck costs you about $110,000 right now for short haul. Like an LNG truck costs you about $170,000 to $200,000. This truck is about $250,000 due to, obviously, a very low production number. When we're getting the production number up to the 1,000 or 2,000 units I think we're going to be somewhere in between the diesel truck and the LNG truck. But we also have to notice that this truck is basically 30 to 35 percent cheaper to operate than any diesel truck, especially in the short-haul solutions, because there's a lot of stop and go traffic and an electric motor doesn't idle, it doesn't have to idle when you're waiting, you know, in queue to pick up your container.
GOVERNOR: And there are right now I think contracts of 2,000 trucks?
MR. SCHUERMANN: Well, we're anticipating to do 2,000.
GOVERNOR: There will be 2,000. So I think that, like I said, this is a technology that really can be used for us to clean up our air. And as you know, that in the ports, especially around the ports, that we have premature death and we have tremendous health problems that people have and I think that - so it's a double whammer here, that we can fight global warming and at the same time also really create a healthier environment right here. And also it's great for the economy, like I said, because those cars and those products are produced right here in California.
Any other questions about the truck? Yes, please.
QUESTION: I wonder, who drove it all the way up here?
GOVERNOR: Was it you, Martin?
MR. SCHUERMANN: Not me. No, it wasn't me. I don't have a license.
GOVERNOR: OK, we don't know who the driver was.
MR. SCHUERMANN: Well, the driver is somewhere.
GOVERNOR: (Laughter) He's somewhere.
MR. SCHUERMANN: Oh, here. No, I'm sorry. I didn't see him. It was Mike.
GOVERNOR: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It was beyond the range. We drove it here from the Sacramento
Freight Liner.
GOVERNOR: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Just to stage it up here.
GOVERNOR: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's a prototype truck, so obviously there are different things that we don't want to expose it to, the whole traffic and driving it all the way up here. But it can handle the typical short-haul duties that we need down at the port.
GOVERNOR: Good. Any other question? Yes?
QUESTION: So I know you saw today that the new death penalty report shows that states like California waste $137 million a year because of the long process it takes. Given these tight budgetary times, do you think it's time to rethink the death penalty and changing just everything to life sentences?
GOVERNOR: Well first of all, as you know, this is something that the people have voted on, so it's not a decision that is just made here in this Capitol. Number two, I think that, you know, justice, it's worth the money no matter what budget crunch we are in. And so I think we're going to continue with that until the people have changed their mind here in California and want to, you know, get rid of the death penalty. So I think until that point we will continue. The key thing is to make it more efficient, to speed up the process and that, I think, is something that we are going to work on.
QUESTION: Governor, we haven't heard you address some of your positions on some of the bills. You changed your mind on several that you had previously mocked or said that you wouldn't support. Then we saw the email from Assemblyman Blakeslee. Are you trustworthy? Do we know where you stand on all these things?
GOVERNOR: Well, I think that you in the media, you have to concentrate on the process. I understand that, because you have to fill pages and you have to report every night and do your news.
But we are concentrating more on the end result and the end result will be a positive one because we are all working right now and creating the language, writing the language of the policies, the different areas of water infrastructure and the water, you know, redoing our water system. And I think it's very important that the legislative leaders continue working forward and then they have their hearings and then they vote on it.
And what happens in between, or what Blakeslee says, become irrelevant. Because people sometimes get upset if you sign a certain bill that they don't like, you know, the Harvey Milk bill or something like that. You know, he sees it and says, "Oh, my God, this is outrageous. What is that?" So that's, you know, that's his problem.
But in the meantime, we want everyone to work together and to make sure that we have the water infrastructure, because when they get this done - and I think that within the next two weeks we can get that done - it will be a historic accomplishment. Yes, it was very difficult. Yes, we have worked many months and years on these negotiations. But I think it was worth it, because the state of California needs a better water system. This is now outdated, it's 40 years old since Pat Brown built this.
And I think we need to concentrate on the Delta, to fix the Delta, to fix the ecosystem, to create a canal and to create above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage, to monitor the ground water and to look at the water rights carefully and to do conservation where we reduce the water usage by 20 percent. And most importantly also is, as you know, our groundwater isn't very clean. There are a lot of chemicals a lot of times that we find. And so I think this will be also - will make money available for cleaning the groundwater once and for all in the state of California.
QUESTION: Governor, on Thursday you're going to sign the stadium bill for the City of Industry. What do you tell the fans and communities like in Oakland, or perhaps San Diego, for example, that this isn't going to hurt them? They could be taking teams and jobs away from those communities in order to move them to the City of Industry. What's your message to those people?
GOVERNOR: Well, I think that we have been trying in Los Angeles to get a football team for a long time, for many, many years. And I think that it is about time that now a stadium will be built. And the great thing is that a lot of the environmental studies have been done and they're going to move forward, the financing is available for that. And that will create a tremendous amount of jobs. It will create a great amount of entertainment for the area there because sports, as you know, is always a great way of entertaining people. People love football. And I think that a team does not have to necessarily come from a California city. It can come from somewhere else, or it could be a new team that is created. So, I mean, there are many different options to go, so I don't think anyone right now has in mind there to take a team and steal it from some California city.
QUESTION: Governor, what's your position on the proposed television efficiency standards in front of the Energy Commission right now?
GOVERNOR: I like it. I think that anything we can do to create more efficiency - and because the important thing I always say is, technology will save us all. Here's a perfect example, this truck, zero emissions. And they are building right now television sets that reduce the amount of output of - that need less energy. And therefore we should go in that direction and we should inspire manufacturers to go in that direction because the technology is available. So yeah, I support any of those ideas, as long as it can be done, you know, technologically. That is the important thing. I mean, we don't want to pass laws and they cannot be done. And also it's very important to always have ramp-up time so we don't do it from one day to the next but we give the manufacturers and the people enough time in order to make this changeover.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) yesterday and the recent figures from the Controller's Office? At what point do you think we need to reopen the budget?
GOVERNOR: Right now we don't have to reopen the budget but I think that, as you know, we will have a big budget deficit again this coming year. And I think it's sad when you see federal judges interfering in our budget process and in our prison process and when it comes to water and when it comes to all of those issues, because that's what makes California, it makes it very difficult to run the state because you're trying to - remember one thing, that those cuts were made because we had a drop of $30 billion in revenues. So it's not like the people in this building like to just cut programs or cut education, it's because we have a limited amount of money and because of that we had to make the cuts.
It was a decision that was made by Democrats and Republicans in the legislature and also signed by me, so all of us together made those decisions. So for a federal judge to come in and say no, no, no, continue paying that amount, when he has not yet recommended where the revenues come from. I think he should come to our office or to this building and find out how budgeting is done so he will know how it works. And so I think it's irresponsible for them to do that.
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