The transportation industry is rapidly moving towards electrification, but are logistics providers ready to transition? A new PwC report, ‘Battery-electric trucks on the rise‘, highlights the key challenges and opportunities. Here are some core takeaways:
- With the new generation BET entering the market, more use cases are enabled, yet complete portfolio enablement requires further truckification. Across these use cases, standard and long-range variations are expected to be offered to meet customer flexibility requirements.
- Starting in 2025, BETs’ TCO will be lower than diesel trucks. However, significant private investments in depot charging infrastructure are crucial to fully capturing this cost advantage.
- More than 20% of transportation will be electrified by 2030. Stringent regulations and the economic benefits of BETs will drive this transformation.
- Cross-industry collaboration is essential. OEMs and suppliers who partner effectively can significantly reduce development costs.
- Adapted operations can lead to substantial cost savings and efficiency gains. Companies that adapt their operations to BET characteristics could see a marked improvement in efficiency, with finance costs and manual processes being significantly reduced.
Further truck electrification requires new platforms meeting varying customer requirements and use cases. Innovations in battery and cell chemistry, eDrive systems, and high-voltage architecture use cases make truck-specific advancements critical market differentiators.
While higher initial investments are a challenge, the total cost of ownership (TCO) pushes toward electrification. By 2030, PwC expects more than 20% of transportation will be electrified. Looking further ahead to 2040, truck batteries will require over 1,700 GWh, with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology becoming increasingly important.
The electrification of logistics and transportation requires substantial investments in public and private infrastructure and updated operating models. Cross-industry efforts are required to make the BET transition successful – from regulatory, via automotive, and energy towards logistics facilitated by financial services.
Source: PwC