Analysis: Electric trucks on their way to catch up with diesel vehicles in terms of costs.

(Ecomento, translated from German, 12/9/2021)

The independent research organization International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has compared the total cost of ownership of semi-trailers in long-distance transport with electric and diesel propulsion. This type of commercial vehicle is the segment with the highest emissions in road freight transport. The study covers seven European countries: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and Great Britain, which account for more than 75 percent of truck sales in the EU in 2019. The selling price of the vehicle, the financing and residual value, registration and ownership taxes, electricity and diesel costs, maintenance costs, road user fees, battery replacement and costs for the charging infrastructure from the point of view of the first-time users over an analysis period of five years are taken into account. According to the ICCT, the analysis shows that battery trucks can catch up with diesel tractors in all countries considered in this decade without additional political support for the total cost of ownership. However, there are big differences between countries, mainly due to the different electricity and diesel prices, road user charges and political framework conditions. According to the evaluation, battery trucks in Germany, France and the Netherlands can reach the total cost of ownership of diesel vehicles in the period 2021 to 2022, while in other countries this will still take until the middle of the decade.