In February 2019, the European Union set carbon dioxide emission standards for most road transports, including heavy and light-duty commercial vehicles. The
reached just over 298 million metric tons in 2019. Heavy-duty trucks and buses were the highest polluters among commercial road vehicles, representing 19.4 percent of the
. This was the highest carbon dioxide emissions recorded from commercial vehicles since 2015.
The European commercial vehicles fleet is also aging, with
European Union medium and heavy-duty trucks averaging around 13.9 years. In comparison, buses average about 13 years old, and light-duty commercial vehicles approximate a 12-year-old average. These factors are incentives for a push toward building a zero-emission commercial vehicle fleet in Europe.
Light Commercial Vehicles Lead the Market
Around 692,200 alternative fuel vehicles were a part of the
European Union’s commercial fleet in 2021, including a wide variety of low to zero-emission units. This fleet volume represented a rise of over eight percent year-over-year, in line with the steady increase recorded since 2014. Vans made up over 89 percent of this alternative fuel commercial vehicle stock, making this vehicle type traditionally under 3.5 metric tons in gross vehicle weight the leader in the fleet. Annual sales were in line with the fleet distribution. Vans were the
best-selling low-emission commercial vehicle type in Europe in 2021, representing close to 85 percent of sales. Germany was the
largest European market for new alternative fuel van registrations, with close to 16,300 low-emission LCVs sold in 2021.
The higher demand for low-emission light-duty commercial vehicles compared to trucks and buses is linked back to the easier accessibility of charging points for smaller electric and plug-in hybrid van models due to their use in urban traffic. However, progress can still be made in the new energy LCV market. European manufacturers recorded the highest
average greenhouse gas emissions across van producers in 2020. The Italian Iveco generated just under 205 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, with MAN and Daimler Truck close behind. Additionally, fully electric LCVs only represented 3.5 percent of the
van shares in the European Union, far outweighed by diesel vehicles.
A Slower Shift for Heavy Commercial Vehicles
In 2020, the
purchase cost of fully-electric heavy-duty trucks also amounted to some 380,500 U.S. dollars, over three times more than a diesel truck, contributing to the lower adoption of electric trucks and buses by the European market. Diesel vehicles were still the most popular type, but a slow shift towards zero emissions started with the new 2019 standards. Heavy-duty commercial vehicles covered by the new 2019 European Union standard made up about eight out of 10 trucks within the European fleet, with European brands holding most of the market share in this segment. Germany-based Volkswagen and Sweden’s Volvo had over half the market shares of
European truck registrations covered by the adopted carbon dioxide standards in 2020. A 2019 forecast projected the
adoption rate of new-energy heavy-duty trucks to reach 19 percent for long-haul freight by 2030. That same year, the production of hydrogen fuel cell and battery-electric trucks is expected to reach 10 percent but could climb to almost
half the total production of heavy commercial vehicles by 2035. This trend illustrates that the heavy-duty segment is slowly shifting towards zero-emission, though charging availability remains a challenge for the industry. The
European heavy-duty electric vehicle charging infrastructure market is projected to reach 1.5 million U.S. dollars in 2024. Germany is forecast to spearhead the sector, at some
4,300 charging points expected to be in the country by 2025.
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