Battery-electric trucks (BETs) are widely seen as a core pathway to decarbonising heavy-duty road freight, but large-scale adoption remains difficult. A recent study examines how collaborative logistics, smart routing, and targeted policies can accelerate BET deployment for trucks used in middle-mile and long-haul operations—while managing costs and operational constraints. The research combines a new electric vehicle routing model with a scenario simulator. It applies it to a California-based freight network, where long distances, fragmented fleets, and shifting zero-emission regulations make deployment challenging.
The study highlights the fundamental barriers to BET adoption: higher upfront costs, limited range (typically 150–250 miles), payload penalties from larger batteries, sparse heavy-duty charging infrastructure, and the financial vulnerability of the small and midsize carriers that dominate the sector. These constraints make BETs difficult to operate independently, especially in long-haul corridors where downtime and charging gaps quickly undermine productivity.
To address these challenges, the authors investigate collaborative logistics, in which two or more carriers within the same region share depots, chargers, and, in some cases, even trucks. Collaboration improves asset utilisation, reduces redundant mileage, lowers operating costs, and delays the need for each firm to invest individually in private charging or new electric trucks. The model captures realistic conditions, including hybrid fleets in which diesel and electric trucks operate together and must be routed based on their specific capabilities, charging needs, and time constraints.
The researchers introduce a new optimisation model that represents a collaborative, multi-depot electric vehicle routing problem with heterogeneous fleets, pickups and deliveries, multiple commodities, tight time windows, and shared charging infrastructure. A genetic algorithm combined with Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search is used to solve the problem and simulate large-scale, real-world operations.
The simulation results are clear: logistics collaboration substantially reduces total operating costs and emissions. Benefits increase when charging stations are spaced at practical intervals of 60–100 miles; enough to support regional transport without creating excessive detours or downtime. BET performance improves significantly when fleets share chargers and when electric truck adoption reaches moderate penetration levels rather than extreme, all-electric scenarios.
The study also evaluates several policy strategies, including subsidies, diesel penalties, and mixed incentive systems. The most efficient policies are those that support shared charging infrastructure and encourage collaboration among carriers, rather than simply subsidising individual BET purchases. Targeted public support can accelerate adoption while reducing financial risks, especially for SMEs.
Accelerating the deployment of battery-electric trucks will require coordinated private and public action. Collaborative logistics, strategically planned charging networks, and balanced policy incentives can dramatically improve the feasibility of BETs. In an industry dominated by small carriers, collaboration may be the key to unlocking a cost-effective, sustainable zero-emission freight system.