Small Businesses and the Clean Vehicle Transition: Barriers, Opportunities, and a Just Path Forward in North Denver and Commerce City
Community Collaborative Research Center report, October 2026 · Funded by the Gates Family Foundation
Katherine Dickinson, Carrie Makarewicz, Rio Martinez, Ean Tafoya, Juan Madrid, Kamrin Robinson, Carla Nyquist, Ethan Sall-Balcerzak, and Sydney Applegate
Abstract
Colorado has set the transition to clean trucking in motion through its Advanced Clean Trucks and Low NOx rules and through incentive programs such as Clean Fleet Enterprise and Fleet-ZERO. Yet small businesses, whose vehicles circulate daily through some of the most polluted neighborhoods in the country, have been largely overlooked in research and outreach. This study, conducted by the Community Collaborative Research Center, Colorado School of Public Health, and GreenLatinos Colorado examines the barriers and opportunities small businesses in North Denver and Commerce City face in adopting cleaner vehicles.
We surveyed 27 small businesses, conducted in-depth interviews with three of them, interviewed six experts and key informants, and attended the 2026 Intermountain West Electric Freight Symposium. Five findings stand out. These businesses’ fleets are predominantly light-duty and “return-to-base,” making them strong candidates for electrification. Nearly half (13 of 27) would consider switching to an electric vehicle. The barriers they rated most important (purchase price, driving range, capability, and maintenance) are concrete and answerable rather than a matter of cultural resistance. Awareness of targeted incentives is very low: only 19 percent had heard of the state’s Fleet-ZERO charging grant. And in the near term, they are roughly twice as likely to replace a vehicle with a newer diesel or gas model as with an EV.
Together, these findings reframe small businesses as an actionable, near-term opportunity for a just regional clean-vehicle transition, one that depends on timely, trusted, and tailored outreach and programs.
