Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 drives through European wind turbines

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION – Why we all depend on commercial vehicles. And what needs to happen now.

10.02.2025 | Tech & Innovation

To ensure that commercial vehicles can keep our economy and society moving in the future, commercial vehicle manufacturers are investing billions to make them emission-free. The vehicles are ready – but manufacturers are still facing draconian penalties. Meanwhile, Europe is increasingly being challenged by non-European competitors. What is currently going wrong. And what matters now. An article by Andreas Gorbach.

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

Trucks and buses are and will remain the backbone of our economy and society.
Battery-electric and hydrogen-powered trucks and buses are needed for CO₂-neutral transportation – carbon-neutral fuels can also play a role.
Emission-free vehicles are ready, but manufacturers still face draconian penalties – because there is a lack of cost parity and infrastructure for the vehicles.
We urgently need to change this to enable European manufacturers to remain competitive. Otherwise, non-European manufacturers will soon gain considerable market share in Europe.

WHAT MATTERS NOW

Bring forward the revision of the CO₂ targets to 2025 and link CO₂ targets for commercial vehicle manufacturers by law to infrastructure expansion and a Europe-wide CO₂ toll for trucks. Furthermore, allow vehicles powered by carbon-neutral fuels to be generally credited towards achieving the CO₂ targets of the commercial vehicle industry.
Expand charging and hydrogen infrastructure for trucks and buses immediately and rapidly.
Focus laws, reduce bureaucracy – and thus increase the speed of innovation.

What it's all about

Trucks and buses are and will remain the backbone of our economy and society.

  • Commercial vehicles deliver to supermarkets, pharmacies, construction sites, factories and hospitals, put out fires and bring emergency supplies to crisis areas, empty garbage cans, deliver parcels - and they take people to work, on vacation or our children to school.
  • More than 70 percent of our everyday products are transported by trucks. In German passenger transportation, the bus is the second most important means of transportation after the car, and the most important in local public transportation.
  • Unlike a car, the purchase of a commercial vehicle is first and foremost a rational investment decision. Customers are entrepreneurs running their businesses on small margins – they have to earn money by operating a truck or bus.
Mercedes-Benz eCitaro fuel cell
  • In Europe, around six million trucks (Germany: 800,000) and around 900,000 buses (Germany: 80,000) are in daily use – and the trend is rising.
  • By 2040, freight transportation by truck in Germany is expected to increase by 34 percent – and it can hardly be substituted by rail, ship or air.
  • The economic strength of a country is directly linked to freight transportation – when the gross domestic product increases, so does the number of trucks on the road.
  • With almost 60 million tons of diesel consumed per year, six million trucks are also responsible for around seven percent of European CO2 emissions.
Mercedes-Benz Actros L, eActros 600 & GenH2

Battery-electric and hydrogen-powered trucks and buses are needed for CO2-neutral transportation – carbon-neutral fuels can also play a role.

  • If we wanted to switch six million trucks in Europe completely to battery-electric drive, we would need around 350 TWh of green energy per year to charge them.
  • For comparison: Germany’s total electricity demand in 2023 was around 500 TWh.
  • The necessary expansion of the high-voltage grids would be far too time-consuming and cost-intensive.
  • Ten MW is required to charge long-haul trucks simultaneously at a public rest area in around 45 minutes – and, in turn, the planning and construction for only one such facility takes up to ten years.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks hands over first series-produced eActros 600 to customers
  • Battery-electric vehicles alone will therefore not be able to decarbonize at the speed required to achieve the European CO2 targets for trucks (minus 45 percent in the new vehicle fleet compared to 2019).
  • At the same time, independently of the commercial vehicle industry, a global trade in green energy (comparable to today’s trade in gas and oil) will emerge, especially with regard to hydrogen. This is because there is enough sun and wind in the world to produce enough hydrogen to cover the entire demand.
  • For commercial vehicles, hydrogen-based drives are the ideal technology to complement battery-electric drives.
  • Depending on the transportation task, battery or hydrogen (with fuel cell or internal combustion engine) can be the more economical solution for our customers.
  • In addition, the development of a charging and refueling infrastructure for both technologies is faster and more cost-effective than the massive expansion of infrastructure for just one technology.
  • And if the required hydrogen is produced in sunny regions, for example, this high efficiency in production compensates for the lower efficiency due to higher conversion losses compared to battery drives. What is known as the “sun-to-wheel” efficiency is therefore the same.
  • Today, Europe is a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell technology. In contrast to battery cells, Europe can be the global technology leader here in the long term. Thus, an investment in these technologies is an investment in Europe’s future competitiveness.
  • In addition to batteries and fuel cells as emission-free drive technologies, hydrogen combustion engines and “carbon-neutral fuels“ (CNF) such as HVO (“hydrotreated vegetable oil”) can also play a role in reducing CO2 emissions.
  • This especially applies to applications that are difficult to electrify with batteries or fuel cells, e.g. harvesting, construction or defense vehicles. Internal combustion engines for trucks will still be needed here in the long term.
  • CNFs can already be used in the decarbonization of the existing fleet and can generally be credited towards achieving the CO2 targets of the commercial vehicle industry.
Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck

Emission-free vehicles are ready, but manufacturers still face draconian penalties – because there is a lack of cost parity and infrastructure for the vehicles.

  • The commercial vehicle industry has been investing billions in decarbonization for years. All manufacturers have already achieved a great deal here.
  • At Daimler Truck, eleven battery-electric truck and bus models are in series production worldwide, as well as a battery-electric city bus with an additional fuel cell for greater range.
  • But: High prices for green energy and the very low number of public charging and hydrogen refueling stations are currently slowing down decarbonization.
  • Commercial vehicle manufacturers have little to no influence on either of these factors. Manufacturers therefore do not have full control over whether they achieve the specified CO2 targets for 2030.
  • In case they do not achieve the targets, they must pay draconian penalties: per ton of CO2, the penalties are more than ten times higher than in the passenger car industry.
  • Important to understand: The commercial vehicle business is fundamentally different from the passenger car business. Because customers buy trucks and buses with a calculator. They are running their businesses on small margins, so they buy the vehicle that is the most profitable to operate.
  • Cost parity in detail:
    • As long as transport companies earn more money by operating diesel vehicles than zero-emission vehicles, the majority of them will stick to diesel.
    • In addition to vehicle cost, high energy prices in particular make it difficult to achieve cost parity between zero-emission and diesel vehicles – Germany has the highest electricity prices in Europe.
    • Pricing CO2 emissions into the truck toll is essential for economic efficiency. Germany has led the way here. For Europe-wide implementation, 16 other member states must now follow suit, because for many companies, transportation tasks go far beyond individual national borders.
  • Infrastructure in detail:
    • In order to achieve the CO2 targets in Europe for 2030, approx. 35,000 fast charging points (>800 kW) and approx. 2,000 hydrogen refueling stations for heavy trucks and buses are needed.
    • This means: From now on, around 500 new charging points will have to be built every month. Instead, we have a total of far fewer than 1,000 charging points for heavy commercial vehicles throughout Europe, which also have too little charging capacity. Progress with hydrogen filling stations is even slower.
    • It is important to note that this is not comparable with the construction of charging points for cars. In addition to higher charging capacity, trucks also require larger parking areas. Buses must be able to charge at managed rest stops for their passengers, as well as far off the highway – e.g. at tourist attractions or amusement parks.
Daimler Truck Family Range - Zero Emission Vehicles

We urgently need to change this to enable European manufacturers to remain competitive. Otherwise, non-European manufacturers will soon gain considerable market share in Europe.

  • If we do not change anything, zero-emission vehicles from other parts of the world will enter European markets precisely when European manufacturers are faced with draconian penalties – because they must continue to serve the market for transportation with diesel vehicles, which is indispensable for economy and society.
  • At the same time, they must guarantee the sale of diesel vehicles so that the economy and society can continue to function.
  • In addition, there is a cost disadvantage compared to non-European providers, who benefit from lower wages and energy prices, high government subsidies and less bureaucracy. This is already clearly noticeable in the market for electric city buses.

What matters now

Bring forward the revision of the CO2 targets to 2025 and change two things in particular:

  • Link CO2 targets for commercial vehicle manufacturers by law to infrastructure expansion and a Europe-wide CO2 toll for trucks.
  • Allow vehicles powered by “carbon-neutral fuels“ (CNF) to be generally credited towards achieving the CO2 targets of the commercial vehicle industry, instead of installing lengthy, bureaucratic and cost-intensive measurement procedures for each vehicle individually.

 

Expand charging and hydrogen infrastructure for trucks and buses immediately and rapidly.

  • Infrastructure is the bottleneck of decarbonization.
  • The German government collects around 15 billion Euros from the truck toll. A considerable proportion of this must be invested in infrastructure build-up – little of which is happening, if at all, today.

 

Focus laws, reduce bureaucracy – and thus increase the speed of innovation.

  • With around 150 EU regulations and around 30 directives, trucks and buses are one of the most heavily regulated industries of all. Over 20,000 pages of regulations must be observed - from battery regulations, hazardous goods regulations and component approvals to noise regulations.
  • This puts a huge brake on the development of innovations and technologies that give Germany and Europe a competitive advantage.
  • Over the period in which funding applications for the development of future technologies are approved in Europe and Germany, the technology in question has often already reached the next innovation stage – and the previous funding application is practically obsolete.
Andreas Gorbach

About the author

Dr Andreas Gorbach is Member of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG and Head of Truck Technology. Prior to his current position, he was CEO of the fuel cell joint venture cellcentric of Daimler Truck AG and the Volvo Group. Before that, Gorbach was Head of Product Management for the global generations of engines and axles at Daimler Truck. In addition, he was responsible for climate protection and air quality within the company’s sustainability strategy.

Gorbach started his career at Daimler Truck in 2005 in the powertrain development department. He held various management positions in the following years, including Head of Development for the global engine platforms.