During last week’s IAA Transportation exhibition, JUNA, a joint-venture of sennder and Scania, announced an order for 30 heavy-duty Scania electric lorries, expanding its fleet to 50 trucks in the process.
The company, formed last year, utilises a truck-as-a-service model that’s designed to win carriers hesitant to make the switch to electric due to prohibitive upfront costs.
However, is there sufficient demand there for such a model to thrive? And will the model be able to last – even once electric vehicles come down in cost? We spoke to JUNA CEO Matteo Oberto himself at IAA Transportation in Hanover to get his thoughts on these matters and more.
Is the demand there?
Regarding demand, Oberto described the order for 30 Scania electric trucks as a “significant step” for JUNA, and added that he expects to see demand grow into 2025.
“We’re seeing a desire from new customers to get onboard with the transition to electric trucks. Of course, it’s a path and journey that does require work together with customers. It requires an investment in time to find the best truck applications, as well as to explain the benefit of the electric trucks to both transportation companies and shippers. However, the signal we want to make today with this order is one of positiveness toward the electric transition. We really see a growing demand for a shift from old to new technology, and we’re committed to driving this transition by enabling transportation companies to go electric today,” Oberto told Trans.INFO.
Charging infrastructure development
The message from many manufacturers at IAA Transportation was clear; the electric trucks are ready, now it’s up to policymakers to help accelerate the rollout of charging infrastructure.
That would suggest a degree of frustration or disappointment with the amount of charging infrastructure carriers have at their disposal.
Nevertheless, Oberto takes a positive view of the situation and says things have improved noticeably since JUNA’s formation last year.
“I have a very positive view in terms of charging infrastructure. I think compared to 9-10 months ago when we started with our first electric truck, we’ve already seen great progress. We see a lot of CPOs investing in and announcing new stations. In Germany, the number of public electric truck stations has grown significantly from just 1-2 a few months ago. Additionally, electricity tariffs have improved by 10-15% compared to last year. We’re confident these trends will continue. In some countries in particular, we really do see the possibility of utilising the public charging as a means of launching our first electric trucks there,” JUNA’s CEO told Trans.INFO.
Oberto also observes developments in terms of the chargers available at depots:
“Besides that, there is a huge effort among manufacturers to also serve the depots of transportation companies and shippers. This is another area where we see a new and increasing offering. This situation is evolving and it is positive, but we do see the need to keep on pushing with the infrastructure.”
On the other hand, Oberto also emphasised the need for legislators to help push the electric transition further forward:
“Of course, there is also a need to be supported, by the whole ecosystem and by legislation. The trend I see is basically for truck OEMs but also for charging equipment OEMs to really keep on pushing, and keep on deploying the technology. It’s not a case of waiting to see what’s happening in the market.”
Learnings since JUNA’s formation
JUNA is still very much in its early stages as a company having been formed as recently as last autumn.
When quizzed on what the company has learned about optimising the operation of the electric trucks in its fleet, Oberto told Trans.INFO that the feedback about the vehicles themselves has been positive.
The JUNA CEO also stressed that timing charging with mandatory driver breaks has been key:
“The other learning point concerns the process in which we deploy electric trucks. We’ve learned about the kind of operations whereby these vehicles are most competitive. Under the right conditions, we’re already enabling our customers to operate electric trucks at the cost of diesel, and with certain optimizations, even 5-10% below diesel. A key example is utilising smart charging to combine driver brakes with the charging, thereby keeping the truck utilised as much as possible and thus bringing down costs,” added Oberto.
Will JUNA’s business model still be sustainable once electric trucks become more affordable?
Finally, looking forward, given that one of the attractions of the truck-as-a-service model is the prohibitive up-front costs associated with purchasing an electric truck, what happens when these vehicles eventually come down in cost? Would the model be rendered obsolete?
In Oberto’s opinion, by providing high utilisation rates and attractive digital services, the truck-as-a-service model can remain viable even if electric trucks become less expensive.
“Well, our model, which eliminates the high upfront cost and customises the cost of the pricing to the actual utilisation, is only one of the elements of our value proposition. Our idea is to really help the transportation companies have an end-to-end turnkey solution that unlocks the efficient electric truck usage,” Oberto told Trans.INFO.
The JUNA CEO added:
“By adding the utilisation component, as well as some of the new digital and technology services that we’re developing, we’ll be able to help transportation companies even after the cost of the trucks has reduced. With our support they’ll be able to maximise the value of these new machines regardless.”