Commercial trucks operate for longer hours, carry heavier loads and burn far more fuel per vehicle than passenger cars but freight diesel is even more important when looking at global diesel demand.

China’s heavy-truck electrification program is targeting 40% new-energy heavy-truck sales by 2030, more than 1.6 million vehicles in operation and roughly 20% of the national heavy-truck fleet. The plan also targets 18% of highway freight volume, which is the more revealing number. China is not merely trying to put electric drivetrains into one-fifth of its trucks. It is concentrating them in commercially active fleets and high-volume freight operations

This is the distinction that oil demand models risk missing. Yes, a few electric trucks in demonstrations are a signal that adoption is coming, but electric trucks tied to corridors, depots, grid capacity and repeatable operating routes are a diesel replacement system.

Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: For a great many years, heavy trucks have been treated as hard to replace with battery systems, a last bastion of diesel. But no more, China is showing us all what can happen, and this should be a strong warning to the oil giants and the legacy truck manufacturers.    PSR

Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead

So, when a small Indian start up, (called Vimag Labs and based out of Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka), secures its fifth Indian patent for an electric motor that runs without any rare-earth magnets, people start to listen.

Source: Electrek: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Most EVs use a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor which uses REE, but the trick isn’t making REE free motors, but rather doing it as efficiently as a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor. If this works (and it’s a big if) then it could side step the REE supply issue.   PSR

EV batteries contain minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which raise environmental and social concerns relating to their disposal.

EV batteries can be recycled, but it is very difficult and costly. Batteries must be prepared before recycling and this involves discharging, dismantling and separating its components.

Source: MSN: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Europe is looking at this problem with several projects underway in the UK and Europe, but the questions remain: can this be done quickly, economically, and in doing so, create a new resource stream for the future? Only time will tell.   PSR

The joint venture says its first UK hubs will open in 2027, with more than 30 planned across Europe by 2035

CATL already has a heavy-truck battery-swapping platform called Qiji, which focusses on standardizing battery blocks and swap machinery. CATL is trying to make the battery block the common object around which truck chassis, stations, battery inventories and operating systems are designed

Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Given that freight operators run regular routes, this system has a valid operating plan, but whether or not European freight companies will get behind it, is a completely different ball game. However, in China, CATL has made this work with 305 swap stations at the end of 2025.   PSR

Hold on I hear you cry, what about Ethiopia? In 2024 Ethiopia banned the import of all fossil-fueled cars. In truth, there isn’t a lot of difference but in the Laos ban public transport vehicles, construction machinery, project-related trucks, and other specialized vehicles are exempt. This is a passenger-car policy, aimed squarely at the segment where affordable electric alternatives already exist, reports electrek.

Source: Electrek: Read The Article

PSR Analysis:  Laos, like Ethiopia, generates a large portion of its electricity needs via hydroelectric power, and struggles to pay for diesel/petrol imports. Given the Iran-USA conflict, and the resultant high price for oil, this policy seems to make a great deal of sense. What happens after the six-month period will be the critical factor.   PSR

By the end of the decade, Daimler will establish a truck plant in the Czech Republic for the Mercedes brand and another large plant in the United States primarily for the Freightliner and Western Star brands.

In Europe, Mercedes-Benz Trucks is continuing to systematically strengthen the future viability of its European production network. The plant in Wörth am Rhein, Germany, (state of Rhineland-Palatinate) is—and will remain—the lead and largest volume plant within the network. The company plans to expand the existing network in the future by adding a vehicle assembly and manufacturing site in Cheb (Karlovarský/Karlsbad region), Czech Republic.

Painted cab bodies will be supplied from Wörth. Subject to all pending approvals—among others by the Cheb city council—the company plans to begin construction next year, with ramp up of the new European network concept targeted for the end of the decade. The goal is to further enhance the efficiency, resilience, and flexibility of all sites within the network in light of increasing complexity caused by a growing variety of product variants.

In the United States, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) has announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in an unidentified U.S. location to expand production capacity and meet rising demand across North America.

DTNA announced in July that it will move the remaining production of Freightliner and Western Star truck lines away from its Portland, Oregon, manufacturing plant—where Freightliner has built trucks since 1942—to the Carolinas by the end of the year.

The facility, wherever it is located, will focus on vocational and on-highway truck production, incorporating flexible assembly systems and automated manufacturing technologies to adapt to changing vehicle configurations.

“It will be the largest manufacturing plant in the U.S. for trucks when all is said and done,” said O’Leary, adding the company is evaluating multiple potential locations, prioritizing sites with access to skilled labor, established supply chains, robust transport infrastructure, and favorable business conditions.

While a final site has not been selected, O’Leary said construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with operations targeted to start in 2029.

Source: CCJ     Source: Daimler

PSR Analysis. Mercedes brand expansion in Europe appears to be driven primarily to reduce cost by transferring production from a high cost Germany to a lower cost Czech Republic. In recent years, Poland has been a good option for lower cost medium and heavy vehicles and will continue to be so in the future. The trend of European OEMs moving production to lower cost countries is expected to continue over the next decade as manufacturers seek to significantly reduce the cost of their vehicles as competition continues to strengthen in both their domestic and export markets.

In the Unites States, DTNA recently closed its assembly plant in Portland which typically produced 8,000 – 10,000 Freightliner and Western Star trucks annually.  The current volume will primarily be transferred to the plants in Mt. Holley and Cleveland.  The decision to close the Portland plant was primarily driven by reducing production costs.  The Portland plant closure is not a surprise, since DTNA has been discussing this for years.  Adding a brand new plant with a minimum capacity of 30,000 trucks, for example, would certainly provide Daimler with ample capacity moving forward and the ability to consolidate manufacturing operations if need be.  PSR

Chris Fisher is Senior Commercial Vehicle Analyst

Previously it was thought that oxygen in the battery was “passive”. But the study found that while phosphates showed little oxygen participation, the layered oxides (in the cathodes) showed “significant” electron extraction from oxygen

Source: MSN: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Our current battery technology is limited by our understanding of the underlying physics of how and why batteries fail over time. This research opens new avenues to explore and will help design batteries with much longer lifetimes.   PSR

Full sized airplanes represent a significant challenge, which requires a completely new generation of lighter, higher performing (increased energy density) batteries. And, the US startup Air Energy may have a solution: solid State Lithium-Air batteries.

The idea is to use oxygen as a key ingredient in a rechargeable lithium-based battery, thereby saving considerable weight while potentially boosting energy density far beyond the capacity of ordinary lithium-ion technology

The US Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory discovered that the cathode-centered assumption behind all the previous work, was mistaken. They observed lithium hydroxide forming on the anode during operation, causing the battery to degrade, and the research work kicked off.

Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Obviously we are not there yet, and the batteries are not suitable for the larger aircraft, but if the latest research can be upscaled into production, then light aircraft may just have found their zero-emission option.   PSR

Guy

The paper argues that not every ship needs to become battery-electric. This goes against the standard anti-eco argument, that states that marine transport is not suitable for electrification. Inland vessels, ferries, coastal ships, offshore support vessels, service craft, port craft and many short-sea routes operate in regular patterns that are much friendlier to electrification.

The report finds that, by 2030, roughly 30% of maritime energy consumption and nearly 20% of maritime greenhouse gas emissions are technically electrifiable.

Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: The report / paper infers that by electrifying smaller vessels, maritime emissions can be significantly reduced. Meanwhile, when the industry focusses on larger, deep-sea vessels and looks towards alternative fuels such as ammonia or hydrogen, it may be missing a relatively easy win. And it’s something that has already started to happen with vessels such as ferries.   PSR

Guy

Leaving aside the issue of Inland sea vessels, ferries, coastal ships, offshore support vessels, service craft, port craft and whether they can or should be electrified, one of the issues that is not being discussed (until now that is), is what happens to the marine market in terms of cargo capacity and cargo hauled, when fossil fuels are replaced.

Fossil fuels are roughly 40% of maritime tonnage, but they represent about half of maritime freight energy because coal, oil, and gas are mostly long-haul bulk trades.

Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Fossil fuel cargos travel long distances in very large tonnages, so any decline removes more than a proportional share of cargo mass. It removes a larger share of the ocean work and the fuel burned to do that work. This means that elimination of fossil fuels from the high seas may have a greater effect than simply a reduction in the fuels burnt by shipping.   PSR

Guy Youngs