Spurred by increasingly strict EU regulations aimed at reducing CO2 emissions as well as massive Chinese state support for its national manufacturers, the sector is determined to press ahead. "There is now a race to really develop and launch these electric trucks on the market." There has been "a reckoning in the industry that they will not be able to hold on to their diesel engines forever," Rodriguez said. US manufacturer Tesla, which has been hugely successful with its electric cars, also aims to break into the e-trucks sector, with its "Semi" model promising a range of up to 800 kilometres (500 miles).Įlectric heavy trucks currently cost more than diesels, but their price is expected to fall © Sergei GAPON / AFP/File In 2022, electric trucks accounted for a tiny portion of heavy trucks on the world's main markets - just one or two percent, with 40,000 to 50,000 units sold worldwide, most of them in China, according to data from trade experts.īut the main Western truck makers - Germany's Daimler and Man, Sweden's Volvo and its French subsidiary Renault Trucks, and the other Swedish manufacturer Scania - have invested heavily. The global truck market is sizable, estimated at more than $200 billion per year with almost six million units sold. "In 2030, 50 percent of the volume that we sell for Volvo Trucks should be zero emissions. and in 2040, everything that we sell should be zero emissions," Roger Alm, head of Volvo Group's trucks division, told AFP. That more or less corresponds to the level necessary to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement to decarbonise road transport, according to the ICCT.ĭiesel long-haul trucks emit around one kilo of CO2 per kilometre, the ICTT estimates. With Europe's current electricity mix, which still comprises a significant amount of coal and gas, the carbon footprint of an electric truck is two-thirds lower than that of a diesel truck. Spreading around the worldĮlectric trucks are expected to account for 90 percent of the truck market by 2040, according to ICCT. "It has started to really take off and grow in the Northern parts of Europe and in North America," Alm said. "Now it's moving into the southern parts of Europe and we also have new markets in Africa, for example, Australia, Brazil, so it’s expanding country by country.A spooky, black human silhouette suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the roadside of a picturesque country road in southern France. It was the size of an adult, but it had no face instead, a lightning bolt seemed to split its head in two. Speeding down this road with no traffic, no lampposts and no speed traps – just ancient plane trees towering on both sides – I dismissed the figure as a weird prank. And then two more, an adult and what looked like a child. The cut-outs represented people who died on this road in car accidents. It’s a not-too-subtle example of a strategy known as behavioural science or nudging – techniques that make people act or respond in a certain manner. Some nudging tactics are straightforward or obvious. Signs displaying speed, speed limits or reminding drivers to take regular breaks try to capture the driver’s attention directly.
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