While the authorities in the European Union are introducing increasingly strict regulations on vehicle emissions in road transport, the opportunity for a transition to electromobility remains limited. The electric transformation of transport in Europe, including Germany, is progressing very slowly. As of July this year, out of the 800,000 trucks registered in Germany, only 528 were electric vehicles. This represents a tiny fraction (0.006 per cent) of the entire German truck fleet.
“We have a few large companies that occasionally buy one or two electric trucks, but these are mainly ‘demonstration projects’,” said Dirk Engelhardt, spokesman for the BGL board of directors, to Reuters. He added that medium-sized companies, which account for more than 80 per cent of the transport sector, are currently not investing in electric vehicles.
Colossal number of power plants needed
In addition to the higher prices of e-trucks, the still inadequate infrastructure is a significant factor. The issue of energy infrastructure was addressed by BGL, a leading German transport organisation, which presented its calculations.
According to the association, power lines are often not designed to cope with the high energy demand, and it takes years to approve new high-voltage lines. Electric trucks would only be truly climate-friendly if charged with 100 per cent green electricity.
“To provide enough green energy for the transport sector alone, we would need 187,500 additional wind turbines or 61 nuclear power plants in Germany,” Engelhardt explained. Currently, however, there is not a single nuclear power plant in Germany, and there were fewer than 29,000 wind turbines at the end of 2023.
“With the current electricity mix, consisting of 50 per cent renewable energy, a diesel truck emits no more CO2 than an electric truck, which is around 65 kg of carbon dioxide per 100 kilometres,” added Engelhardt.
He stressed that it is not enough for the European Commission to set industry targets for reducing CO2 emissions for new vehicles by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2019. For these targets to be met, European countries must invest in the development of energy and charging infrastructure, and provide companies with investment subsidies.