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Fire trucks for the earth

Law & charger

Follow the money

Driving the day

Final word

I was excited to see an electric firetruck firsthand earlier this year, but I didn't fully understand the rationale for one. After all, even the crunchiest climate advocate can tolerate diesel when it's saving lives.  

The big picture: Firefighters argue that employee health concerns are an essential driver — including fumes in the firehouse and ear-splitting engine noise.

Zoom in: Upon visiting San Diego's Torrey Pines Fire Station, I saw a box next to the passenger door of a Pierce Volterra fire engine.

"That for me?" I asked, assuming the crew had put it there as a climbing courtesy into the tall cab. 

"They're for us," Capt. Cameron Snyder responded — pointing out the boxes in front of every other door to the engine. Taking that big step through the decades wears on the body.

The intrigue: That crystallized for me why American towns and cities are buying — and manufacturers like Pierce are building — battery-powered fire trucks.

Follow the money: During a $22 million makeover of the San Diego fire department's Station 52, the department paid $2.1 million for the engine, plus another $600,000 for a pair of charging systems.

That's about twice the price of a standard fire engine.  

Close to two dozen agencies have bought or ordered an electrified fire engine from Pierce or competitors Rosenbauer and E-One.

Zoom in: The Pierce Volterra, made by an Oshkosh Corp. subsidiary, produces zero air pollution and is whisper-quiet.

"We live here; a third of my life is spent in a firehouse," engineer Kevin Taddonio tells Axios Pro. "It's pulling into your own house and not having those particulates."

The near-silent operation meanwhile reduces the risk of long-term hearing loss and makes for safer roadside emergency scenes. "I can hear traffic coming," Taddonio adds.

How it works: The Volterra has a backup diesel engine that kicks in as soon as the battery is depleted — after roughly 90 minutes of continuous water-pumping at a fire.

The hybrid approach enables the Volterra and its crew to stay on-scene. But the diesel engine is roughly half the size of a normal engine, limiting driving power.

What's next: San Diego plans to replace one engine at each new station it builds with an e-powered fire truck. 

1. Fire trucks for the earth

Red fire engine parked in front of a large dark gray industrial building under a cloudy sky; chrome details, ladders, and emergency lights visible, with San Diego Fire-Rescue branding.

The battery-driven Pierce Volterra pumper at San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Station 52 is almost indistinguishable from a conventional diesel-powered fire engine. Photo: Alan Neuhauser/Axios

Many towns and cities — including my community in Rhode Island — are experimenting with electric police cars.

They can idle for hours at a speed trap or emergency scene, merely sipping from a battery instead of guzzling expensive fuel and wearing down a traditional engine. 

They accelerate like drag racers, enabling quick overtakes of speeding drivers.

Some can use their batteries to supply electricity to buildings during a power outage.

Yes, but: Range-limited EVs aren't great for highway patrol, which requires much more driving.

Reality check: Converting a civilian car for police work comes with significant trade-offs, from back seats too small to accommodate a cage for arrestees to wheels and brakes unsuited for intense daily driving. 

Driving the news: GM in late 2024 began delivering its electric Chevrolet Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicle, adapted from Chevy's low-cost Blazer electric SUV.

It starts at $54,700 — comparable to Chevy's internal-combustion Tahoe SUV.

It remains the only electric police car in the country.  

"We've seen strong initial adoption from approximately 300 agencies," spokesperson Katie Minter tells Axios Pro. "Interest continues to grow."

The intrigue: GM's strategy contrasts with Ford's, which offers a hybrid police vehicle — but no purpose-built police EV.

"We have a police advisory board that meets quarterly or more to ensure we have a pipeline of real-world feedback to inform our future product," Ford spokesperson Elizabeth Kraft tells Axios Pro, adding the automaker holds over 50% of the police vehicle market. 

The bottom line: GM says it's committed to keeping the electric police vehicle around.

"A lot of local governments want to improve their environmental footprint," George Jones, product marketing manager at GM, tells Axios Pro, "and they can save a lot in the total cost of ownership." 

2. Law & charger

Front-left view of a Chevy Police Pursuit Vehicle SUV in black-and-white livery, with a push bar, roof light bar, and POLICE on the side, parked in a lot with a chain-link fence and cloudy sky.

Chevy's electric Police Pursuit Vehicle is based on the automaker's Blazer EV. Photo: Alan Neuhauser

Several startups are targeting developers of large charging depots for e-vehicle fleets, and investors are paying attention:

1. Indigo Technologies, a developer of electric vans and software for ride-share fleets, is raising $65 million in Series C funding, Axios Pro has learned.

So far it's secured $40 million, with a final close expected later this month. A larger round, targeting $200 million to $300 million, is expected next year.

2. It's Electric, a Brooklyn-based developer of curbside EV charging stations,  expects to close about $4 million in seed-extension funding this month, COO Tiya Gordon tells Axios Pro exclusively.

Halogen Ventures led, joined by insiders Alumni Ventures, Apollo Ventures, Future Communities, Gaingels, the Partnership Fund for NYC, and Wisdom Ventures.

The company has raised $10 million since its launch in 2021, plus $7.1 million in grants and other non-dilutive funding, deploying 54 barebones chargers across six cities, with another 1,600 chargers in the pipeline.

"No touch screen, no keypad. All the things that normally break we've removed," Gordon says.

3. Terawatt Infrastructure, another charging startup, was preparing to raise up to $1.5 billion this spring to meet soaring demand for charging hubs, largely driven by automated taxi services like Waymo.

"It's an expansion," CEO Neha Palmer told Axios Pro at the time. "The first use case has been ride-share."

Data: International Council on Clean Transportation; Note: Data includes buses, medium-duty trucks such as delivery vehicles and flatbeds, and heavy-duty trucks; Chart: Alan Neuhauser/Axios

International Council on Clean Transportation

3. Follow the money

Illustration of a delivery truck with a dollar bill on the side

The HR software startup is looking for deals after raising $166m. 

🔬 VCs struggle to sell drug discovery tools (Natalie Breymeyer)

💔 Stocks-bonds relationship is on the rocks (Matt Phillips)

🛑 Sanders floats superintelligence AI ban (Josephine Walker)

AI politics don't align with the traditional left-right spectrum.

👷🏻‍♀️ America's jobs scare recedes (Neil Irwin & Courtenay Brown)

Today's report recast concerns raised in the last two months.

4. Driving the day

Illustration of the Axios Pro logo and "DRVNG THE DAY" on a license plate.

"It's like someone sat down and invented a segment just to make it easier to sell EVs... We can sell just the right amount of battery, they can charge it slowly and cheaply every night, and the big automakers do not care about medium-duty trucks — they haven't been updated in decades."

September 04, 2026

1. Fire trucks for the earth