A tractor-trailer truck capable of hauling shipping containers down a freeway can weigh 10 tons or more.

A two-stroke gas-powered leafblower typically weighs far less than one-thousandth as much, 10 to 15 pounds.

Battery makers and truck companies are now preparing to shift even their ponderous freight-hauling vehicles from gasoline or diesel fuel to battery (or fuel cell) power. As this new article by Steven Nadel, for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, points out, progress on battery-powered trucks is coming more quickly than most analysts expected.

Here is a chart from his article, about truck-related standards from California, which since the 1960s effectively set the national standard for fuel-efficiency and emissions-control.

From ACEEE: “Electric Trucks: Steady Progress in the Past 18 Months”

The ACEEE post also cites a very detailed ACEEE research report, called “Electrifying Trucks: From Delivery Vans to Buses to 18-Wheelers,” by Nadel and Peter Huether. You can download it (after filling out a form) here.

Again, the common-sense test: if batteries are becoming powerful and inexpensive enough to haul a multi-ton container down an Interstate, surely they can handle even the most demanding leaf-blowing tasks.