A recent report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market for commercial vehicles that use electric drive vehicle technology, including global market forecasts for sales and the number of vehicles in use through 2023.
Although medium and heavy duty vehicles represent just a fraction of all vehicles on roadways today, they contribute significantly to road transportation sector fuel consumption and carbon emissions. However, electric drive vehicles—with improved fuel efficiency, technological advances, and an alternative to gasoline and diesel fuels—are beginning to make inroads in this segment as commercial and government fleet operators consider investing in greener vehicles.
According to Navigant Research, sales of electric trucks and electric buses are expected to total more than 805,000 from 2014 to 2023.
“Recent innovation in the electric drive medium/heavy duty segment has the possibility to offer significant benefits for commercial applications,” says David Alexander, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “For example, some hybrid electric vehicles have drive cycles specifically designed for stop-start traffic, and many plug-in electric vehicles can use onboard electrical energy to replace idling diesel engines or provide temporary power to buildings or tools at remote sites.”
Despite these advances, most fleet managers are more concerned with the return on investment than with the technology and are targeting a payback term of less than 3 years, according to the report.
While incentives can help to lower the initial investment, managers look at the overall cost of running a fleet for multiple years, considering the effect of introducing new technology on the fleet as a whole and not just replacing a single vehicle with a different one.
