The market for electrified transport logistic vehicles is still in an early stage. Most research and development efforts are expended for vehicles related to light commercial vehicles. However, research and development efforts related to larger vehicles are accelerating.
Current vehicle performance in terms of payload and range is limited compared to conventional diesel driven counterpart. About 47 light commercial vehicles models have been identified as possibly available on the market. Regarding larger vehicles 41 vehicle models have been identified as possibly available on the market.
However, the actual market availability of a particular vehicle should be requested individually from the manufacturer and vary according to the country. Mainly new suppliers offer alternative powertrains as well as complete electric vehicles.
City logistics
City logistic applications are generally seen as early niche markets for electric transport logistic vehicles from the operations point of view. Reasons for that are limited route lengths, low travel speed and frequent stop-and-go movements in urban areas. In addition, vehicles used within urban areas are going to be faced with tightened emission requirements.
However, vehicle performance varies between specific vehicle types and depends on a number of factors related to cost, operational conditions, technology and infrastructure. Therefore, the operability and the business case highly depend on country or region specific conditions and the case of application.
Most experience has been made with battery electric vehicles related to light commercial vehicles used for parcel and post deliveries applications for which battery electric vehicles are well suited. Only a small number of larger vehicle vehicles have been tested so far in various applications. More experience is needed in order to identify suitable applications in city logistics. The project didn’t look at light electric freight vehicles.
Conclusions
Common experiences across countries are:
- Current development stage of battery electric vehicles limits operation
- Availability and choice of electrified transport logistic vehicles is low
- Technology is well accepted by the drivers
- Business cases are hardly provided
- Business case highly depends on the local conditions.
Source: ‘Current status of the electrification of transport logistic vehicles – Early niche markets and commercialization opportunities‘ by Kleiner et. al.