Europe's Electric Truck Evolution: A Perspective on BEVs Registration and Usage
Facts, figures and preferred areas of operation for heavy electric trucks
Due to local legislation, Google did not update Street View imagery in Germany for more than 10 years, until 2023 or so. Unlike some other countries’ views, all imagery from German Autobahns is fresh and clean. There are a lot of recent year’s car models with properly blurred faces and numberplates on most of them, but if you look on the right most lane you will find what remained unchanged from 2011 – an intermittent row of heavy trucks with large protruding shiny diesel fuel tanks from both sides. I had a hard time finding any meaningful differences just from the view (hey, there was a truck with camera mirrors!), but is everything as still as it seems?
To find this out, I looked at updated truck registration figures from ACEA. I caught immediately, that Q4`s heavy truck registration figures revealed while the overall market contracted by 8.5% year-over-year, electrified truck registrations surged by 29.4%. At first glance, their 1.6% market share (up from 1.3% in 2023) might seem insignificant. But consider the context: Europe lacks a comprehensive fast-charging infrastructure network, and electric trucks still face limited suitable application scenarios. Against these headwinds, those 1200 new electrified trucks represent a substantial wave of innovation and experimentation across Europe.
But which countries are pioneering this transformation? Who´s willing to invest in technology that currently commands a premium price? The visualization below reveals the driving forces behind Europe´s electric truck revolution.
Click the chart for full view and details
Arranged by year-over-year percentage point increases, our chart spotlights the most adaptive countries of 2024. Norway stands as the undisputed leader not just with cars but also with HCV, nearly doubling its market penetration from 4% to an impressive 7.8%. Switzerland, Sweden and Austria follow with substantial gains. While Germany added over 1000 vehicles (by far the highest absolute number), this presents only a modest percentage increase against the overall truck market.