Daimler Truck Holding AG and Volvo Group, the truck and bus manufacturing subsidiary of Daimler, will showcase their latest electric trucks in Germany this week with dozens of commercial vehicle manufacturers, making their debut at the IAA Transportation exhibition. There will be more zero-emission trucks than ever before.
Daimler has launched the Mercedes-Benz eActros, which can haul 22 tons of cargo around 500 kilometers on a full charge. MAN, a brand of Traton SE, is showing off a 40-ton electric truck that can be charged quickly. Volvo is offering visitors a test drive of its electric truck.
The key question executives in the electric truck space must answer, however, is how long it will take their heavy-duty electric vehicles to get from the showroom to the highway. High battery prices and a nearly non-existent truck charging network remain significant obstacles, with transport companies weighing whether it is worth continuing to invest heavily amid Europe’s unprecedented energy crisis and a slowing global economy.
BloombergNEF analyst Nikolas Soulopolous said: “There are already a lot of electric trucks on the market, but their adoption has been slow, especially in Europe. Capacity is still ramping up slowly and there is not enough suitable public The charging network is available and truck batteries are still expensive.”
Still, pressure to transition to electrification in the trucking industry remains. European companies operating in urban areas need to comply with stricter truck regulations as cities work to improve air quality. Electrifying heavy-duty vehicles will be key to combating climate change, as they produce about a quarter of EU road transport emissions.
Europe wants the industry to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new trucks by 30 percent by 2030, and most manufacturers are betting that batteries, rather than hydrogen fuel cells, will be the dominant technology to achieve this. However, most European countries do not have similar measures compared to the US plan to offer a $40,000 subsidy to buyers of electric heavy-duty trucks.
Traton, a Volkswagen Group brand, has pledged to eliminate fossil fuels for half of its trucks by 2030. Its Scania brand this year delivered an 80-ton electric truck to forest company SCA, which is using it to transport timber in northern Sweden. Last week, Volvo began mass production of heavy-duty electric trucks and said it has sold more than 2,600 battery-powered trucks.
“For some use cases, especially shorter urban mileages, the total cost of ownership of battery-electric trucks could soon fall to that of diesel vehicles,” said BloombergNEF analyst Solobolos.
Currently, the mass production schedules for electric trucks vary by major manufacturers, as they are still struggling to increase production capacity and obtain enough parts. Daimler’s eActros won’t hit series production until 2024, and MAN’s trucks won’t start production until 2025.
Nikola, which plans to unveil the fuel cell Tre FCEV Beta at this week’s auto show, has delivered just a few dozen trucks and may now be distracted by the criminal fraud trial of its founder, Trevor Milton. Tesla has delayed production of its electric truck, the Semi, several times.
Volvo, Traton and Daimler plan to spend 500 million euros ($498 million) over the next five years to build at least 1,700 charging stations for heavy-duty electric vehicles in Europe. Daimler has also launched a similar project with the US company BlackRock, which is working to improve batteries and speed up charging.
Romed Kelp, a partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman, said: “Europe needs a fairly dense network of high-speed truck charging to facilitate wider adoption of long-distance battery-powered electric trucks. First, the right locations need to be identified, But it is unclear whether the energy infrastructure in some of these locations is ready to handle the surge in demand.”
