With Subsidies, Frito-Lay Buys Chargers and More Electric Trucks Frito-Lay, one of the first companies to put modern electric delivery trucks on the road in New York State, is now following up by adding more vehicles and, working with state government, the charging stations to go with them. At a news conference in Albany on Thursday, Frito-Lay and its partner, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or Nyserda, will display both the new Level II chargers and some of the 20 additional electric trucks the snack maker is adding. The expansion will bump its total New York fleet to 35. Steve Hanson, senior manager of fleet sustainability for Frito-Lay, said in a telephone interview that the company is installing chargers at its distribution centers in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and New Paltz. The state energy research and development authority will gather data from the chargers to learn more about the impact of electric trucks on the power grid. Mr. Hanson described Frito-Lay's experience with electric trucks so far as pretty phenomenal. "We've learned a lot of lessons, including which routes work best for these vehicles," he said. The biggest challenge, as we change routes, has been getting some drivers to go back to conventional trucks after they've been using the electrics. It's a neat testimony to how far we've come. According to Mr. Hanson, the 15 existing trucks in the fleet, from supplier Smith Electric - which hopes to build a factory in the Bronx - have been "roughly on parity" with conventional diesels in terms of reliability. "But we think there's an opportunity to make them more reliable," he said. Each of the four locations to add chargers will be served with five new trucks, mostly built by Smith but also from Electric Vehicles International. Frito-Lay has 249 electric trucks in operation nationwide, but expects to have 269 by the end of the year, Mr. Hanson said, adding that financing for the trucks and chargers is complicated. The new chargers are subsidized through an infrastructure grant from the authority, but not the trucks, for which the company received federal incentives. The trucks in New Paltz could qualify for authority money, but don't because they won't be operated in a "non-attainment" area for air quality, a condition of the grant. That means, basically, that because the air quality is good there, Frito-Lay isn't eligible for state sourced funding for those trucks, although they do qualify for help from the federal government. The New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program, announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last month, includes $19 million to support the purchase of electric, hybrid and compressed natural gas vehicles. The electric subsidies are a $9 million component, and there is also $10 million for the other types of trucks as well as emission control retrofits for diesel trucks. The subsidies are available in 30 counties that don't meet federal air-quality standards. Janet Joseph, vice president for technology and strategic planning at the authority, said in a telephone interview that the available truck subsidies cover "up to 80 percent of the incremental cost of a battery electric truck, so if the diesel version is $70,000 and the electric version is $130,000, the difference is $60,000 and we cover 80 percent of that." According to Ms. Joseph, "Nyserda very much wants to see companies support and invest in electric vehicles. The Frito-Lay program is a great model, because it shows that it can make business sense for companies to buy E.V."s. We hope other companies will follow. She said the agency is in "various stages" of working with other fleet owners. A spokeswoman for Smith Electric, Rebecca Fabian, said in an e-mail that Smith Electric "doesn't yet have a firm date for the opening of the Bronx facility," but the company continues to "advance their plans" for it. In June, Bryan L. Hansel, chairman and chief executive of Smith, said that approval of the state incentive program would help make the business case for opening the plant.