Europe’s transition to zero-emission trucks (ZETs) has reached a decisive phase. While EU CO₂ standards for heavy-duty vehicles are among the most ambitious globally, the pace of real-world deployment still lags what is needed to meet the 2030 target of roughly 35% zero-emission truck sales. The Smart Freight Centre report, with contributions from ACEA and AllChiefs, argues that supply-side regulation alone is not sufficient. To close the gap, Europe must urgently strengthen demand-side measures and align policy implementation across the freight ecosystem.
ZETs are indispensable for achieving climate targets
The context is clear. Road freight accounts for around 10% of total EU emissions, making ZETs indispensable for achieving climate targets. Sales of zero-emission trucks are growing in percentage terms, especially in frontrunner countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden, but from a very low base. Compared with China, where targeted use cases and strong coordination drive adoption, Europe’s market remains fragmented. High upfront vehicle costs, uncertain residual values, delayed charging infrastructure, and uneven policy implementation continue to undermine the total cost of ownership (TCO) case for carriers, especially SMEs.
A complex, multi-actor ecosystem
A central insight of the report is that ZET deployment happens in a complex, multi-actor ecosystem. Carriers ultimately decide whether to invest, but their decisions are shaped by shippers’ procurement practices, OEM production strategies, financing conditions, and the availability of charging infrastructure. Shippers play a pivotal role as demand-side actors, driven by Scope 3 emission targets and ESG reporting requirements. However, most shippers still operate with short procurement cycles and limited willingness to pay a green premium, leaving utilization and investment risk with carriers. This misalignment discourages long-term ZET investments.
The problem is implementation
From a policy perspective, the EU already has powerful instruments on paper. Measures such as the CO₂ standards for trucks, the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), the Renewable Energy Directive III, ETS2, and the Eurovignette Directive (and the Dutch vrachtwagenheffing) together have the potential to shift TCO in favour of electric trucks by the late 2020s (when energy costs are a level playing-field). The problem is implementation. Many member states are slow or inconsistent in transposing these rules, resulting in a patchwork of incentives that fails to create a clear and credible investment signal. As the report shows, only a handful of countries fully exploit tools such as toll differentiation or ZET exemptions, while others lag far behind.
The authors argue that the fastest way to accelerate uptake is to focus on targeted early cost-parity use cases rather than the entire market at once. Experience from China, ports, industrial clusters, and urban logistics shows that electrification takes off where duty cycles are predictable, daily mileage is high, and depot or corridor charging is feasible. In Europe, promising segments include municipal services, urban distribution, port drayage, construction logistics, and specific freight corridors. Concentrating policy support and infrastructure investment on these niches can create scale, learning effects, and confidence that later spill over into the broader market.
An emphasis on public procurement
A key contribution of the report is its emphasis on public procurement as an underused demand lever. Direct public procurement of trucks represents a modest share of the market, but it can validate use cases, standardise requirements, and reduce perceived risk. More importantly, indirect public procurement (through construction projects, infrastructure works, and logistics services linked to public spending) has the potential to influence hundreds of thousands of vehicles over the coming decade. However, this requires revising the Clean Vehicles Directive, which currently allows non-zero-emission technologies to qualify as “clean” and sets targets that are misaligned with the truck CO₂ standards.
The report is cautious about broad fleet mandates, especially for shippers. Experience from California shows that poorly designed demand mandates can create legal uncertainty, administrative burdens, and financial stress for SME carriers. Any such measures would require robust monitoring frameworks, clear data standards, and alignment with infrastructure readiness.
Policy-centric?
The report’s overarching message is pragmatic. Europe does not need entirely new policies, but faster, more consistent implementation of existing ones, combined with targeted demand-side interventions. By aligning shipper demand, carrier economics, public procurement, and infrastructure rollout, Europe can push ZET adoption past key tipping points. If successful, this will not only reduce emissions but also strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the European freight sector in the decade ahead.
However, the report remains largely policy-centric and optimistic about coordination capacity. It underestimates structural constraints faced by SME carriers, such as balance-sheet limitations, grid congestion, local energy cost, and operational risk. The role of energy system bottlenecks and spatial planning is acknowledged but not sufficiently integrated. Moreover, proposed governance improvements rely heavily on faster implementation of existing instruments, without fully addressing political fragmentation at national and local levels. Overall, the report is a strong agenda-setting document, but it is weaker in its realism about implementation.
Walther Ploos van Amstel.
Also read: Decarbonizing urban freight with low- and zero-emission zones: practical recommendations