Mapping the electric highway

John Crum

National Sales Manager, Equipment Finance
Wells Fargo Commercial Banking

We could be on the verge of the biggest change in the transportation industry since the invention of the combustion engine.

The future is heading towards electric. We're right at the beginning of this transformation.

In 20 years, 60% of the light-duty trucks sold will be electric, and 30% of the medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold will be electric.

We understand that converting to electric is a journey for our clients, and we're there to give them advice as they go along that journey.

Buying electric vehicles instead of an internal combustion vehicle is more complicated in a number of ways.

The first thing would be, is there a vehicle that's suitable for your application? Is it going to have the range that you want it to have?

Next, you need to determine if I'm going to charge it at my location or somewhere else. If you're doing it at your own location, do you have the power coming in? The electricity you have coming into your facility now may be adequate for your current needs, but that's likely to change when you install high-speed chargers.

You also have to think about things that would impact the performance. What kind of terrain is it going to operate in? What's the weather going to be? If you operate in a location that is flat and warm, you're going to get better performance than a vehicle that's going to operate in a cold and hilly environment.

We work in strong partnership with our colleagues in our renewable energy and environmental finance teams.

Wells Fargo has committed to deploying $500 billion in financing for sustainable projects and businesses by 2030.

Part of our journey to go net zero by 2050 includes both our own emissions as well as our financed emissions, so helping our clients get to their electric vehicle goals is part of that.

For me personally, it’s an exciting time to be a part of this. I drive a hybrid myself. I've got an electric vehicle on order and it's really nice to be able to help our clients along that same journey.