The world’s first battery electric timber truck: analysis of the first two years of operation

Electromobility plays a key role on the path toward a sustainable society, where electrification of freight transports can mitigate climate change by decreasing the use of fossil fuels, reducing noise, and improving air quality. For heavy trucks there are several challenges and aspects to consider. Among these are estimating total cost, estimating energy consumption, deciding on charging locations and capacity, fleet mix, and how to make route planning. Many companies are making investment decisions to introduce electric trucks without accurate information or any practical experience on these aspects. One reason is the lack of electric heavy trucks in actual operation and information on their use available. We present and analyze the performance from the first two years of operation of the world’s first fully battery electric timber truck at the forest company SCA operating in Sweden. The analysis is based on quantitative data from the Scania battery electric timber truck with more than 65,000 kms of operation, as well as qualitative data from unstructured interviews with persons involved in developing and operating the truck, both inside and outside SCA. The analysis provides important information and experiences of the transport, energy consumption based on multiple measurement systems and estimations, total cost, and a sensitivity analysis comparing diesel and electric heavy trucks using the most important input including electric and diesel price, purchasing price, government subsidies, C02 emission reduction, and charging downtime. From this, it is clear how electrical trucks can be competitive.