Fraunhofer-ISI: Battery trucks will soon be competitive

Electric trucks in heavy-duty traffic are likely to be competitive in just a few years, according to the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research. They benefit "from rapidly falling costs for batteries and fuel cells," the researchers announced on Thursday in Karlsruhe. Battery trucks in particular are expected to "achieve techno-economic competitiveness with today's diesel trucks for most applications in the foreseeable future," said study author Steffen Link. 

Most Promising

The transformation will cost a lot of money. According to current knowledge, battery power is the most cost-effective and "most promising technology to at least reach the cost level of today's diesel trucks" in many applications. Range and payload are already sufficient for most logistics applications today. Battery trucks are also available on the market in large quantities faster than fuel cell trucks. Industry and politics should therefore quickly build up production capacities and a nationwide charging network, expand the power grid, and adjust regulations, recommend the researchers.