10,000,000+ battery-electric trucks and buses to be sold this decade

After a 7% decline in the market for batteryelectric commercial vehicles in 2020, which was the continuation of a decline in 2019 and was largely due to Chinese subsidy policies, the sector is set to bounce back in 2021. Market research firm Interact Analysis says that though sales dipped from 168,000 in 2019 to about 156,000 in 2020, the projected global sales figure for 2021 stands at nearly 231,000 units – 47% growth for the sector.

This is driven by growth in Europe and North America along with the extension of China’s EV subsidy programme, which was meant to come to an end in 2020. Asia-Pacific will be streets ahead in 2021, surpassing the 2019 global figure with more than 171,000 sales. Europe will be second in this league table, with a projected 44,000 new electric vehicle registrations in 2021. The total truck and bus market (batteryelectric, fuel cell, hybrid and diesel) will decline by 16% in 2020, but will see 15% growth in 2021.

Interact Analysis forecasts that electrified powertrains will account for more than 2.5 million annual registrations of commercial vehicles by 2030, out of a total of more than 20 million. Battery-electric powertrains are predicted to make serious inroads in the city bus and light-duty vehicle sectors. Intercity bus fleets and long-haul trucks, where pure battery-electric is not always a viable option, are predicted to see an increasing use of fuel cell technology.

The latest policy developments in China signalling a relaxation in green rules to stimulate production, indicate that hybrid technologies will have a strong role in the region. Targets indicate that by 2030 New Energy Vehicles (batteryelectric or fuel cell electric) should account for 30% of new sales in China, while hybrids should account for 75% of ‘traditional energy’ vehicles. The impact on the medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle market could be significant.

“We aren’t there yet with full electric powertrains for heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and we may not be for some time,” says Interact Analysis senior analyst

Rueben Scriven. “We predict that hybrid solutions will come to the fore in APAC (partly due to new regulations in China), whilst in Europe, OEM fleet CO2 emissions regulations (-15% by 2025 in the EU) will likely push mild hybridisation in heavy-duty applications. California, along with several other US states, is mandating OEMs to sell a certain number of zero emission commercial vehicles. This will disincentivise OEMs to sell hybrids as these vehicles may cannibalise zero emission vehicle sales.”