Medium- and heavy-duty truck electrification

Practically all major truckmakers have outlined their decade roadmaps, and though there are differences there is also one common trend: electrification.

Truckmakers are already rolling out small numbers of medium-duty electric trucks and are even teasing long-haul, heavy-duty variants. As regulations tighten and societal pressure builds, the number of electric products on the market and fleet interest should increase in tandem.

The industry must prepare quickly, especially on infrastructure installation. Public charging stations, in particular, are lacking, and though depot charging is a great starting point the lack of a wider network remains a key adoption hurdle. Battery powertrains are also still very expensive. Further refinement is needed to bring costs down.

And amongst all this progress looms the internal combustion engine, which experts project can survive for many years yet, albeit in much smaller numbers. However, all in all, this decade could well go down in history as the decade which turned the tide.

• Electric trucking offers fleets ergonomic efficiency potential
• Regulators gently steer truck sector toward electrification
• Electrification means truck suppliers must be holistic, and technology agnostic
• Electric trucks offer attractive efficiency potential for fleets
• Distribution sector ripe for battery electric variants
• The writing’s on the wall: Daimler Trucks embraces batteries and fuel cells
• Public electric truck infrastructure vital, but severely lacking

'Special report: Medium- and heavy-duty truck electrification' presents insight from:

• Cummins
• Daimler Trucks
• International Council on Clean Transportation
• McKinsey
• Ricardo
• Scania
• Transport & Environment
• UPS
• United States Postal Service
• ZF