The decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles requires transitioning from fossil fuel to zero-emission trucks, such as battery electric trucks and hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks. However, the absence of a pervasive and dependable network of high-capacity charging and hydrogen refuelling stations risks of compromising, rather than fostering, the greening of this hard-to-abate sector. The present study aims to contribute to the extant literature by presenting an innovative analysis of the EU network-level dispensing infrastructure cost of both compressed and subcooled liquid hydrogen refuelling stations, in addition to megawatt charging stations. It is calculated that, assuming the entire trucks fleet conversion into 35 MPa and 70 MPa-compressed hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks, annual investments of 3.8 and 7.2 billion euros will be necessary by 2050 for the establishment of a hydrogen refuelling network infrastructure in Europe. Conversely, the financial outlay required for the electrification of 2 million battery electric trucks in Europe by 2050 is estimated to be between 8.1 and 12.9 billion euros per year. Similarly, the cost of network-level subcooled liquid hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is calculated to be 1.0 billion euros. While the 70 MPa-hydrogen refuelling and the ultra-fast electric charging levelized dispensing costs are comparable, the levelized costs associated solely with the refuelling of 35 MPa-compressed hydrogen are estimated to be 50–65% lower than those of electric charging. Subcooled liquid hydrogen exhibits the lowest dispensing infrastructure costs; however, upstream liquefaction emerges as a dominant cost driver, substantially increasing total supply chain costs. These results highlight the critical role of stations-infrastructure economics in shaping technology pathways for heavy-duty transport decarbonisation. By providing transparent and comparable cost benchmarks, the study supports evidence-based policy design, coordinated stations planning, and strategic prioritisation of hydrogen and electric charging networks in Europe.

Abstract Road freight transport is essential to modern economies, yet its decarbonization remains challenging. While previous studies often focused on average-duty or long-haul applications, the logistics sector is highly heterogeneous, spanning a wide range of truck usage patterns. This study assesses the economic viability of battery electric trucks (BETs) and fuel cell electric trucks (FCETs) using microdata from four million trucks across Europe. Under baseline assumptions for cost and technical maturity, BETs outperform diesel trucks in total cost of ownership for 70-90% of heavy-duty road freight activity by 2030. When accounting for limited charging infrastructure until 2030, 25% of kilometres, corresponding to 19% of vehicles, remain economically and technically feasible-substantially higher than the 5-9% share of the total truck fleet expected under the 2030 EU CO 2 standards. By 2035, infrastructure roll-out and improved costs increase the share of kilometres to 77%. In contrast, the window for FCET cost-competitiveness is narrow.

Abstract Heavy-duty trucks transport a large share of global freight and account for a considerable portion of road-transport emissions, making decarbonization a pressing priority. Heavy-duty electric trucks (HDETs) are a promising pathway, but adoption remains constrained by vehicle-level trade-offs (battery capacity, mass, and cost), limited charging access, grid constraints, and tight schedules, especially for long-haul operations. This review synthesizes recent research and selected technical reports and organizes the evidence using a coupled system perspective spanning vehicle technology, charging infrastructure, grid interaction, and fleet operations. We synthesize how battery energy density, lifetime, and cost influence driving range, payload, total cost of ownership, and life-cycle emissions. We review alternative charging technologies and modes for HDETs, including depot and overnight charging, opportunity charging with high-power or megawatt charging, and battery swapping. We then synthesize how charging technologies, charging infrastructure siting and sizing, and charging–grid integration influence infrastructure requirements, costs, and grid impacts. The reviewed studies suggest that low-power depot charging tends to impose limited local grid impacts, whereas megawatt-scale corridor charging often requires stronger grid capacity; on-site PV, storage, and coordinated charging can help, but constrained sites may still need targeted grid upgrades. Operational studies show that fleet planning, routing, charging scheduling, and automation-enabled driving control and platooning make electrified trucking reliable and cost-effective. Taken together, the evidence suggests that scaling HDETs depends on coordinated progress in technology, infrastructure, grid readiness, and operations rather than isolated improvements in any single layer. This coupled system transition implies that policy design should coordinate vehicle incentives, charging deployment, grid upgrades, and operational regulations across stakeholder needs and grid constraints.

Transport electrification is reshaping energy and mobility systems while posing infrastructure, supply chain, and societal challenges that demand bold, interconnected research, argues Patrick Plötz.

Abstract Electrifying heavy-duty truck fleets is critical for decarbonization, yet several cutting-edge approaches are based on historical diesel plans which do not account for electric truck characteristics. Such one-to-one replacement of diesel trucks without adapting operational plans may thus underestimate the technical and economic feasibility of battery electric trucks. To better understand the potential for fleet-level optimization, we compare a one-to-one replacement strategy against a holistic re-optimization approach that jointly solves for fleet composition, shipment-to-vehicle allocation, vehicle routing, and charge scheduling. Using real-world data from German grocery logistics (~38,000 shipments), we find that re-optimization unlocks significantly higher electrification potential and economic performance. It increases the electrifiable payload from 48% to 85% and doubles the fleet-level cost reduction (7.0% vs. 3.5%) compared to the optimized diesel baseline. These results demonstrate that maximizing electric fleet viability requires moving beyond simple hardware substitution to fundamentally restructuring operational logistics.

Greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) must be drastically reduced. Battery electric trucks (BETs) are the main option for low-carbon road freight transport, but they require recharging infrastructure. However, a thorough cost analysis of public charging is lacking, especially for the Megawatt Charging System (MCS). This study estimates the infrastructure-related levelised cost of megawatt charging for battery electric trucks in Europe based on simulated truck operations and techno-economic modelling. The analysis combines empirical driving data with cost assumptions for MCS infrastructure. The reported values are infrastructure-only costs and include annualised capital expenditure, installation costs, grid connection costs and operating expenditure. They exclude electricity prices, taxes, levies, land costs and operator margins. Low- and high-cost scenarios differ in assumed charger hardware and installation costs, while grid connection costs and utilisation assumptions are held constant across scenarios. The results show that utilisation is the key driver of cost reductions over time. The infrastructure-related levelised cost of MCS declines to 0.03–0.07 EUR/kWh by 2050 under the analysed cost assumptions. The total annual infrastructure costs for Europe are estimated at 6.6–10.8 billion EUR, or 2.9–4.7 EUR cents/km. The results support policy decisions on infrastructure deployment and highlight the importance of coordinated rollout and demand growth.

Abstract In this review paper, we delve into the supply-side challenges and considerations for transitioning to 100% zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), weaving together an analysis of batteries, vehicle production, charging infrastructure, and relevant supply-side policies. We begin by examining the innovations and environmental impacts of lithium mining and recycling, highlighting the need for robust frameworks to ensure sustainable battery production. Our exploration of vehicle production reveals important issues regarding labor dynamics and global competitiveness. Our investigation into charging infrastructure reveals complexities in deployment models and access, reflecting broader societal and economic considerations. Lastly, a critical evaluation of policies across various jurisdictions provides insights into the effectiveness and potential improvements needed to support the ZEV transition. We emphasize the need for coordinated efforts and further research, particularly in areas such as end-of-life considerations for batteries and the alignment of international production standards. Our findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the supply-side landscape for ZEVs and underscore the essential research directions to ensure a responsible and successful electrification of the transportation system.

Batteries are critical to mitigate global warming, with battery electric vehicles as the backbone of low-carbon transport and the main driver of advances and demand for battery technology. However, the future demand and production of batteries remain uncertain, while the ambition to strengthen national capabilities and self-sufficiency is gaining momentum. In this study, leveraging probabilistic modelling, we assessed Europe’s capability to meet its future demand for high-energy batteries via domestic cell production. We found that demand in Europe is likely to exceed 1.0 TWh yr −1 by 2030 and thereby outpace domestic production, with production required to grow at highly ambitious growth rates of 31–68% yr −1 . European production is very likely to cover at least 50–60% of the domestic demand by 2030, while 90% self-sufficiency seems feasible but far from certain. Thus, domestic production shortfalls are more likely than not. To support Europe’s battery prospects, stakeholders must accelerate the materialization of production capacities and reckon with demand growth post-2030, with reliable industrial policies supporting Europe’s competitiveness.

The rapid electrification of urban transportation has increased dependence on public electric-vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, making it more vulnerable to frequent and severe disruptions. To address this issue, this study proposes utilizing underused battery electric-bus (BEB) charging networks by dynamically reallocating surplus depot chargers for public EV charging. We introduce an adaptive shared-charging coordination framework to increase the resilience of public charging services. This coordination problem is formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) that jointly optimizes BEB charging schedules and shared charger allocation under uncertainty. To enable real-time decision-making without requiring precise forecasts of future system states, an on-policy deep reinforcement-learning (DRL) approach based on the asynchronous advantage actor-critic (A3C) algorithm is developed. A case study using real-world data from Beijing during a major urban flood demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive shared-charging coordination framework. The results reveal that our approach significantly mitigates degradation in public charging service performance, accelerates recovery to normal operating levels, enhances user accessibility, and supports grid stability. Under an extreme scenario with only 25% of public chargers operational, the proposed strategy limits revenue losses to just 3.49%, compared with losses of 53.34% under conventional operations. Additionally, the A3C-based approach demonstrates notable training efficiency and achieves a favorable balance between short-term responsiveness and long-term system performance when benchmarked against a perfect-information optimization model, proximal policy optimization (PPO), and a greedy heuristic. These findings highlight the substantial potential of BEB charging networks as critical resilience resources for urban public EV charging infrastructure during extreme disruption events.

Battery electric trucks (BET) reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector but require public charging infrastructure. Truck fast charging networks have been planned in various studies and countries. However, existing charging infrastructure optimization studies ignore relevant actual constraints, such as the size of parking areas or available grid power, leading to unrealistic results. Here, we derive a minimal public fast charging network for BET in Germany with actual real-world capacity limitations. We add capacity constraints to a flow refueling location model (FRLM) which makes the optimization more challenging as it is no longer sufficient to ensure that every path can be travelled but it must be determined which vehicle uses which charging location. The constraint is implemented as hourly maximum number of vehicles that can be served at each location and obtained via queuing theory from local traffic flows. We apply the model to 236,000 origin-destination traffic flows. For 300 km BET range, we identify 124 optimal charging locations. For 15 % BET in stock, e.g. by 2030, this would require 2 to 30 charging points per location with an average of 16 charging points using 17 % of the available truck parking lots per location. Our findings provide input for governments and public charging infrastructure planners. These results indicate that well positioned large initial charging locations can already cover significant shares of BET traffic.

Vehicle emission standards have long been based on laboratory tests. We argue that policymakers now can and should regulate vehicles also based on real-world data. Europe’s performance-based regulation of plug-in hybrid vehicles can help develop more adaptive and evidence-based policies for transportation, energy, and environment. Vehicle emission standards have long been based on laboratory tests. This comment argues that policymakers now can and should regulate vehicles also based on real-world data. Europe’s performance-based regulation of plug-in hybrid vehicles can help develop more adaptive and evidence-based policies for transportation, energy, and environment.

Europe’s demand for high-energy batteries is likely to surpass 1.0 TWh per year by 2030, and is expected to further outpace domestic production despite the latter’s ambitious growth. To strengthen Europe’s battery self-sufficiency and competitiveness, policy-makers must accelerate the expansion of production capacity and implement reliable industrial policies that account for sustained demand growth toward and beyond 2030.

Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have remarkable potential to reduce CO2 emissions in road transport. Many governments have introduced incentives to accelerate the market penetration of these vehicles and several studies have shown their effectiveness. Vehicles owned by a company but allowed for private use by employees - so-called company cars - represent a large new car market in Europe. However, little is known about the effect of incentives beyond the early market stages and the effect of company car incentives. Here, we use panel data regression to estimate the effect of purchase incentives on battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales in 31 European countries from 2010 to 2022. We thus go beyond early market studies and obtain the first empirical estimate of the effect of company car incentives on electric vehicle sales. We find that a 1000 per year recurring incentive for company cars increases sales shares relatively by 50-90 % for plug-in hybrids and by 17-40 % for battery electric vehicles, e.g., from 10 % without incentive to 15-19 % or 12-14 %, respectively. Our results confirm the impact of purchase incentives and demonstrate the importance of company car taxation on electric vehicle sales.

Zero-emission trucks will benefit from rapidly falling costs of batteries and fuel cells, which will enable their fast market diffusion. Industry and policy must prepare for battery-electric trucks with respect to their manufacturing and supply, adequate charging infrastructure and electricity grid expansions, as well as regulation.

This data article introduces a comprehensive dataset of real-world truck parking locations across Europe. The dataset comprises N=19,713 designated parking sites classified according to public accessibility and suitability for heavy-duty trucks (HDTs). More specifically, core information comprises the truck stop category, latitude and longitude information, area size, and country assignment. Furthermore, additional information such as truck traffic flow volumes, proximity to the highway network, and land use information provide supplemental data on ambient conditions and thus enhance the contextual relevance of those locations.The dataset was systematically generated using OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, focusing on parking areas, rest areas, and fueling stations as predominant public truck parking sites. These locations were evaluated and filtered for truck accessibility and suitability and then complemented and validated using commercial truck routing / geocoding software. Further refinement was achieved by Mean-Shift clustering. The further integration of supplementary datasets increased the information level, and all clustered locations were labeled into four archetypal categories. Finally, filtering retained only confidently classified publicly accessible and truck-certified parking and service facilities.This dataset assists in finding real-world stop options for HDTs during national or international operations and identifying suitable and most attractive sites for deploying alternative charging or refueling infrastructures along the European transport network. Accordingly, it can serve as a valuable resource for research in traffic science, future energy systems, and alternative truck powertrains. Its added value extends to diverse stakeholders like Charge Point Operators (CPOs), truck manufacturers, logistics companies, and public authorities.

AbstractPolicy-oriented research of efficient energy use and energy demand during the last five decades developed from the scratch to a quite complex research field with many perspectives: new and improved energy-efficient buildings, vehicles, and production processes, structural changes in industry, income, rebound, and saturation effects. Although energy-efficient solutions were (and are) highly profitable, several obstacles prevent their full realisation. Energy policy “discovered” energy efficiency as the “fifth energy source” in the 1980s and labelled its policy priority after the increase of oil prices in the early 2010s by “efficiency first”, although policy analysts may have doubts regarding the real energy policy and allocation of resources. The liberalisation of grid-based energy supply triggered a strong push for demand-side measures (flexible demand; energy services). Electricity demand models became much more dynamic in terms of time to match the increasingly fluctuating electricity supply and load shifting options. Climate policy since the 2010s induced a new wave of energy-efficient applications such as electric vehicles or heat pumps. Regarding the tough climate protection goals of a maximum temperature increase below 2.0 °C, more efficient energy use, conversion, and storage are likely to play a major role, particularly in using the large waste heat from useful energy applications.

Auctions are a widely used policy instrument to support the deployment of renewable energies (RE). Yet, their complex design raises concerns about explicitly or implicitly discriminatory effects against particular technologies. Such discriminatory effects would distort fair competition, reduce economic efficiency, and potentially violate European Union law.Several studies analysed discriminatory auction design from a theoretical and simulation perspective but actual empirical evidence is limited. Here, we demonstrate the existence of technology discrimination in European RE auctions empirically. We apply a fractional logit model to empirically measure the impact of various auction design elements on the success of two technologies, solar PV and onshore wind, based on 57 European multi-technology RE auctions from 2011-2021.Our results confirm the existence of discriminatory effects of several auction design elements in RE auctions, such as installation size restriction, support duration, realisation period, ceiling price, and financial prequalification. The results are stable against various robustness checks such as varying the countries included, the time frame, and the composition of the regions controlled for.Our findings advance the understanding of explicitly and implicitly discriminatory effects against particular technologies in multi-technology auctions and we propose steps to reduce technology discrimination in future multi-technology RE auctions.

Transportation is undergoing rapid electrification, with electric buses at the forefront of public transport, especially in China. This transition, however, could strain electricity grids. Using a large-scale dataset with over 200 million global positioning system records from 20,992 buses in Beijing, we explore the technical, economic and environmental implications of transforming public transport depots into renewable energy hubs. Here we show that solar photovoltaic reduces the grid’s net charging load by 23% during electricity generation periods and lowers the net charging peak load by 8.6%. Integrating energy storage amplifies these reductions to 28% and 37.4%, respectively. Whereas unsubsidized solar photovoltaic yields profit 64% above costs, adding battery storage cuts profits to 31% despite offering grid benefits. Negative marginal abatement gains for CO2 emissions underscore the economic sustainability. Our findings provide a model for cities worldwide to accelerate their commitments towards sustainable transport and energy systems. Electric bus charging could strain electricity grids with intensive charging. Here the authors present a data-driven framework to transform bus depots into grid-friendly profitable energy hubs using solar photovoltaic and energy storage systems.

Electrification of road transport is crucial to limit global warming. Battery electric vehicles with stationary charging infrastructure have received considerable attention in the scientific literature for both cars and trucks, while dynamic charging via electric road systems (ERS) has received much less attention and their future role in low-carbon road transport is uncertain. Here, we envision three potential scenarios for the future of ERS in European low-carbon transport. We sketch a potential European ERS network and discuss the political, technological, and market steps needed to realize these. We argue that existing field trials, tests, and research projects have collected sufficient evidence to make the next step: Decide and act. Decision-makers will never have perfect information about all aspects of ERS or competing technologies, but the urgency of the climate crisis requires a commitment one way or the other. A clear decision with respect to ERS would send a clear directive and would help focus time, effort, and money on the necessary infrastructure and policies to implement ambitious GHG abatement targets in road transport.