Status and trends for electrified transport logistic vehicles

Official URL: http://www.eevc.eu/proceedings-2015/

Due to the current dominance of conventional transport logistic vehicles, recent efforts primarily focus on technologies reducing fuel consumption of these vehicles. Another way to reduce the GHG emissions of road vehicles is the electrification of the vehicle. The electrification of road vehicles has accelerated in the recent years. However, the electrification of passenger cars seems to be prioritized over transport logistic vehicles as the first step, mainly due to the current limitation of CO2-emission primarily for passenger cars. As a consequence, the number of electrified passenger cars is significantly more than number of electrified transport logistic vehicles (as prototype, close to series production and e-conversion). Furthermore, vehicle manufacturers are not keen on producing electrified transport vehicles due to the limited demand from the market. One of the possible ways to overcome this hurdle is to establish city alliances in order to increase the number of vehicles ordered. However, during our discussions with local authorities and city municipalities, a lack of information about the status of existing electrified transport logistic vehicles and their technical specifications, as basis for decisions regarding the fleet implementation, was identified. This paper aims to close the mentioned knowledge gap by showing the recent trends in the electrified transport logistic vehicles with their detailed technical specifications. This study identified about 80 electrified transport logistic vehicles as prototype, e-conversion or close to series production in the investigated markets (Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, USA, Sweden and the UK). Most of the electrified vehicles (more than 50%) belong to the vehicle category N1, most of which (>90%) are battery electric vehicles (BEV). Electric range of transport logistic vehicles vary for N1, N2 and N3 vehicles between 35-200 km, 50-200 km and 120-325 km, respectively. Furthermore, Li-Ion or Li-Iron phosphate batteries dominate the electrified transport logistic vehicles with about 75% of market share. The results suggests that currently, the offered electrified transport logistic vehicles are designed mainly for (inner-) urban transportation tasks, matching requirements of low payload and volume, low distances and vehicle speed. Besides technical advancements in the battery sector, a larger uptake of these vehicles also requires an EU policy strategy that provides clear signals to the trucking industry on climate and air quality targets.