Zero-emissions technologies and fuels are becoming increasingly available for the commercial vehicle sector. An online aid has been made available by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to help vehicle designers and fleet operators better understand the range of emerging decarbonization options.

The Fleet Research, Energy Data, and Insights (FleetREDI) data platform provides industry and government partners access to high-resolution, anonymized commercial vehicle data. The dashboard incorporates information on national trends as well as individual vehicle movement data collected by data loggers and connected devices.

Updated on a weekly basis, FleetREDI allows users to examine the duty cycles of vehicles by weight class and use case, download graphs and data of summary statistics, and request further analysis to determine if fleets can be powered by battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell alternatives. The secure portal offers the critical insights required for trucking fleets, researchers and decision makers to begin the transition to clean, energy-efficient trucking.

The inventory of every major source of commercial vehicle data in the U.S. includes information compiled by NREL’s Fleet DNA tool, which amasses real-world, in-use, high-resolution vehicle data as well as outputs from data loggers and telematics providers. A novel classification system was applied to harmonize billions of data entries, all with different structures, into one searchable tool.

“FleetREDI can help manufacturers make actionable decisions on how they design vehicles. It can help fleet owners make decisions on how they implement vehicles. And it helps determine where energy-efficient technologies make sense,” said NREL researcher Andrew Kotz. “With the right data, you’ll know if it’s possible for zero-emissions vehicles to accomplish the same work as conventional trucks, with all the benefits of zero-emissions alternatives.”