When Attorney Paul Kiesel acquired his first electric vehicle in 2015, he was considered an early adopter.
“There were 12 of us in America back in 2015 that were identified as the highest tech lawyers in America, and I was on that list,” he said. “My Tesla was the 5,430th to roll off the lot in Fremont, California where it was built.”
Since then, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the first rule in the world that has ever required truck manufacturers to transition from diesel trucks and vans to electric zero-emission trucks beginning in 2024.
"I've done research to see what the true design is for the infrastructure," Kiesel said. "Although the challenges with electric and the grids to charge vehicles and the challenges of recycling batteries are issues we have yet to tackle, I fully support the move away from combustible engines to electric.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s clean-truck standard aims to achieve an all-zero-emission short-haul drayage fleet in ports and railyards by 2035, and zero-emission delivery trucks and vans by 2040, according to his press release.
But Kiesel foresees logistical problems looming that involve the standard that Tesla founder Elon Musk previously set.
“You can't even count the logistical problems,” Kiesel told the Southern California Record. “What device are they going to use to charge the vehicles? Tesla has a proprietary plugin. So, they are going to need to open up the universality of the plugs that will be used to actually charge the vehicle. There are a lot of hurdles that need to be overcome. No doubt.”
Tesla may be the resource the state of California needs to overcome the various obstacles. However, Musk relocated Tesla's headquarters to Texas last year.
“Tesla has uniquely built an infrastructure to handle the charging of its vehicles,” Kiesel added. “No other manufacturer yet has come close to replicating what Tesla's been able to build from an infrastructure standpoint. So, while it's awesome to have battery-powered vehicles, it's impossible if you do not have a network set up to actually provide for charging.”
Without federal grants to offset the increased cost to the manufacturers, it may not be possible for trucks to transition by the deadline, according to Kiesel who was involved in the Porter Ranch gas leak litigation in Southern California with 36,000 plaintiffs.
"A lot of industries don't like change," he said. "None of us like change and we all resist because we don't think we can actually get things done but where there's a will, there's a way and sometimes government needs to lead the way because industry is too slow to actually do what needs to be done."