The battery is also gaining ground in vans and trucks – these 7 graphs show it

The postman, the private parcel deliverer or the garbage man use more and more electricity. After the passenger car, electric propulsion is also gaining momentum for delivery vans and trucks, albeit at a low level. This is suggested by the registration figures for 2022 evaluated by the Swiss eMobility Association. According to them, battery-electric vans and trucks have progressed by leaps and bounds, but diesel cars “are setting the tone for the time being”, the association writes.

In 2022, more than 5,000 electric vans were registered in Switzerland. A year earlier there were just over 3000 and in 2010 only 22.

Already at the end of the last decade, electric delivery vans were able to register more and more registrations. “In 2022, with 2,375 sales, approximately three times more electric trucks were registered than in 2020,” writes Swiss eMobility. The difference with the diesel remains significant. “But for the first time, slightly more electric vehicles than gasoline engines were put into service,” as the following image shows.

Every tenth van purchased last year was purely electric. At the same time, 20,134 new diesel-powered vans were put on the road, which corresponds to a market share of 81 percent. By way of comparison: in passenger cars, e-cars have already surpassed diesel cars with a market share of almost 18 percent. In 2022, these accounted for only a 12 percent share of total turnover.

Electric beats gas and hydrogen

The growth in alternative propulsion systems for commercial vehicles can now be “fully attributed to electric vehicles,” writes Swiss eMobility. Because the number of hybrid and natural gas vans remains negligible. Only eleven delivery vans that run exclusively on natural gas have been newly registered. According to the association, no vans with hydrogen have been sold.

In the field of electric vans, Renault is the clear market leader in Switzerland, ahead of Peugeot and Toyota.

According to Swiss eMobility, the emerging era of electric commercial vehicles is made possible not least by the larger and more varied range. The market leader remains the Renault group, which sells “almost twice as many electric vehicles as Peugeot” for electric vans.

It is clear that vans, which are usually designed for shorter distances, are increasingly driving electrically. But what about large trucks, some of which have to travel very long distances?

Large trucks soon also powered?

“The heavier the vehicles, the more difficult it is for alternative drives to enter the market,” the association for electric mobility writes. Now, however, there is growing evidence that “it will also be the battery-electric drive in this category” that will win the race.

In fact, in 2022 the number of electric trucks shot up again, albeit at a very low level.

“Falling battery costs, greater range with often well-known route profiles and a larger range make the Stromer competitive,” the association writes.

Nevertheless, commercial vehicles with a diesel engine dominate: 8 out of 10 delivery vans and more than 9 out of 10 trucks are new registrations. The road to a climate-friendly commercial vehicle fleet is therefore still very long, as the following graph shows.

In any case, the e-drive seems to be making its way into the competition between alternative drives: 6 percent of the newly registered trucks in 2022 drove electrically, 1 percent on natural gas and only 0.1 percent on hydrogen.

The hydrogen truck, which was widely traded a few years ago, remains a marginal phenomenon for the time being, as the following graph shows. It shows the new registrations if only alternative drives are considered.

According to business magazine Forbes, 20 out of 25 suppliers of zero-emission trucks rely primarily on batteries for energy storage and five rely on hydrogen. The license plate numbers illustrate this trend: “In addition to the 159 electric trucks, only 27 were registered with natural gas (CNG) and three with hydrogen”, Swiss eMobility calculates.

When it comes to electric truck suppliers, Volvo, including those co-developed by the Swiss design firm, leads the way.

“The savings potential in terms of greenhouse gases and the energy required in logistics is enormous. The current developments in the field of e-commercial vehicles are positive and urgently needed,” says Swiss eMobility president Jürg Grossen. The fact that Swiss companies such as E-Force One, Designwerk or Flux play an important role is all the more satisfying.

One reason for the positive development from a climate point of view: large commercial vehicles with alternative drives have been allowed to be heavier since last year. The Federal Council wants to promote more climate-friendly trucks. Because, despite the heavy batteries with the higher permitted weight, more goods can be transported, the switch is economically more attractive.

The trend seems clear: in order to meet their CO₂ reduction targets, because customers want it and not least for cost reasons (low maintenance costs), more and more companies will replace their combustion engine commercial vehicles with electric vehicles. According to a study by AddSecure, 83 percent of transport companies in Europe want to convert their fleet to electric vehicles or alternative fuels. But this will be a long process. The study lists range anxiety, a lack of charging stations for trucks, the weight of the batteries and the high purchase costs for e-vehicles as the main obstacles.

The pitfalls of long distance

A test drive by the Swiss logistics company Krummen Kerzers, which wants to replace its diesel trucks with e-trucks, recently showed that there are still a number of obstacles on long-distance routes. One of their electric trucks went to Spain to transport 20 tons of oranges to Switzerland. The bottom line: it’s possible, but the tour required a lot more planning and took five days instead of the usual four by diesel truck.

Although the electric Volvo truck used has a range of 300 kilometers, the driver had to charge 15 times on the 3000 kilometers there and back. “Many charging stations delivered less electricity than advertised, especially when other cars or trucks were being charged at the same time,” describes a “NZZ am Sonntag” journalist one of the pitfalls on Twitter. There was also a delay because the trailer had to be uncoupled at most loading stations, because there was often no access for the entire truck.

This test drive shows as an example: the range of the electric truck is currently less of a problem than the inadequate charging infrastructure for trucks. The Swiss logistics company was nevertheless convinced that daily long-distance transport with e-trucks would be possible “once the infrastructure is in order”.