Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On September 20, Daimler Truck Holding AG and Volvo, Daimler's truck and bus manufacturing subsidiaries, will show off their latest electric trucks in Germany with dozens of commercial vehicle manufacturers this week, and more zero-emission trucks will debut at the IAA Transportation show than ever before.

Daimler launched the Mercedes-Benz eActros, which can tow 22 tons of cargo for about 500km when fully charged. Traton SE's MAN brand is showing off a 40-ton electric truck that can be recharged quickly. Volvo offers electric trucks for visitors to test drive.

However, the key question that executives in electric trucks must answer is how long it will take their heavy electric vehicles to get from the showroom to the highway. High battery prices and an almost non-existent truck charging network remain major obstacles, and transport companies are weighing whether it is worth continuing to invest heavily amid an unprecedented energy crisis in Europe and a global economic slowdown.

"there are already a lot of electric trucks on the market, but their adoption is very slow, especially in Europe," said Nikolas Soulopolous, an analyst at BloombergNEF. "capacity is still slowly increasing, there is not enough public charging network available, and truck batteries are still expensive."

In spite of this, there is still pressure on the truck industry to transition to electrification. European companies operating in urban areas need to comply with stricter truck regulations as cities strive to improve air quality. Electrified heavy vehicles will be the key to tackling climate change, as they account for about 1/4 of EU road traffic emissions.

Europe wants the industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new trucks by 30 per cent by 2030, and most manufacturers are betting that batteries rather than hydrogen fuel cells will be the leading technology to achieve this. However, compared with US plans to provide $40,000 in subsidies to buyers of electric heavy trucks, most European countries do not have similar measures.

Traton, a brand owned by Volkswagen, has promised that half of its trucks will no longer use fossil fuels by 2030. Its Scania brand this year delivered 80 tons of electric trucks to SCA, a forest company, which is using it to transport timber in northern Sweden. Last week, Volvo began mass production of heavy electric trucks and said it had sold more than 2600 battery-powered trucks.

"for some use cases, especially for shorter distances in cities, the total cost of ownership of battery-powered trucks may soon fall to the level of diesel vehicles," said Solopoulos, an analyst at BloombergNEF.

At present, the mass production schedules of electric trucks vary from manufacturer to manufacturer because it is still difficult for them to increase production capacity and obtain sufficient parts. Mass production of Daimler's eActros won't be available until 2024, and MAN trucks won't be ready for production until 2025.

Nikola, which plans to launch the fuel cell Tre FCEV Beta at this week's auto show, has delivered only a few dozen trucks and is now likely to be distracted by the criminal fraud trial of its founder, Trevor Milton. Tesla has delayed the production of the electric truck Semi several times.

Volvo, Traton and Daimler plan to spend 500m euros ($498 million) on building at least 1700 charging stations for heavy electric vehicles in Europe over the next five years. Daimler has also launched a similar project with BlackRock in the United States in an effort to improve batteries and speed up charging.

"Europe needs a fairly dense charging network for high-speed trucks to promote the wider adoption of long-distance battery-powered electric trucks," said Romed Kelp, a partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman. "suitable locations need to be identified first, but it is not clear whether the energy infrastructure in some of these locations is ready for a surge in demand."

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.