Europe’s EV Trucking Industry Is Scared As Hell

• China’s EV manufacturers have a new target market in mind: commercial trucks.
• Europe’s legacy heavy-duty trucking segment could soon face some serious competition.
• Trucks built by Chinese automakers could beat out current battery-electric truck prices by 30%.

If you’re looking ahead to see how the next major EV battle will play out, don’t look to sedans or even SUVs. Look at commercial vehicles—specifically electric freight trucks. Quietly, those huge battery-powered semis are becoming the next global arms race.

It turns out that China’s major automakers have their eyes set on this emerging market. Europe’s legacy truck makers have caught on and are fearing just how quickly low-cost competition could arrive at their doorstep.

Photo by: Windrose

According to a new report by Automotive News, Chinese freight trucks are a very real threat for Europe. And just like made-in-China passenger cars, these semi trucks pose a serious risk to the competition by offering more tech at a lower price.

Names you probably know by now like BYD and Geely are involved, of course, but so are other brands, There are startups like Windrose and SuperPanther looking to break into Europe, plus other industry players like Sinotruk and China’s top-selling electric truck brand, Sany.

The new arrivals, according to the report, are aiming to price their vehicles around 30% less than the European average for new commercial EV trucks. That means a $380,000 business cost could be reduced to just $266,000. That’s still expensive, though, considering that cost is about triple the $115,000 average for a diesel-powered truck in the EU.

Still, China is already miles ahead in the scaling department for electric trucks compared to its European competition. That’s not really surprising considering that zero-emission trucks make up around 29% of all heavy-duty commercial vehicle sales in China already compared to Europe’s measly 4.2%.

To make matters worse for Europe’s heavy-duty trucking industry, the Chinese competition is extremely fast at developing new products. What takes a domestic player seven years to complete a development cycle has taken startup Windrose just three. And that’s absolutely frightening the industry right now.

“We have one or two years to get ahead of this,” says Chris Heron, secretary general of trade association E-Mobility Europe. “Or the Chinese will eat our lunch.”

In fact, even Volvo Group’s CEO Martin Lundstedt handed it to its Eastern competition by acknowledging how “speedy, innovative, decisive and committed” the various brands have proven to be.

Typical consumers care about the bottom line—how much is an EV going to cost upfront? But like we mentioned earlier this week, the bean counters who live in spreadsheets care more about the overall cost per mile. That makes EV heavy trucks more attractive than ever. Now slash the upfront cost by 30%, and those Chinese trucks look just as compelling as the country’s electric passenger cars.

Legacy automakers should be worried. Innovation is already at their doorstep and have proven that China’s plan to dominate the global auto market is a very real threat to the market supremacy currently held by the most prominent European marques.