Scania Chief Executive Christian Levin has warned that Europe’s truck makers risk missing 2030 CO2 reduction targets due to infrastructure failures and economic barriers, despite electric vehicle technology being ready for deployment. The warning came alongside the Swedish truck maker’s Q2 results, wherein it reported a 10% decline in second-quarter revenue to SEK49.9bn (US$4.7bn).
Levin stressed that technology readiness was not the issue. “Frankly, the problem isn’t technology: electric trucks and buses are ready and in production, and European commercial vehicle manufacturers can deliver on orders now. One bottleneck is infrastructure. Fewer than 1,000 truck-suitable chargers exist across the EU, megawatt charging is largely unavailable, and grid connection lead times are unworkable,” he said.
Heavy battery-electric truck adoption remains at just 1.5% across Europe, despite truck makers successfully increasing deliveries year-over-year. Scania, for its part, introduced its Megawatt Charging System back in June, capable of charging trucks from 20% to 80% in under 30 minutes. By doing this, it has addressed the major issue of downtime anxiety among hauliers from its side, although other issues abound.
“Another obstacle is that economics are currently skewed against BEVs,” Levin drove home. “Electricity is taxed more heavily than diesel in many member states, and high upfront costs and uncertainty around TCO remain a barrier for hauliers. To scale up our BEV offering at the pace we need to see, we urgently need political alignment on infrastructure, energy pricing and regulation.”
