A year-long study by Transport Canada and the PIT Group, part of the research organization FPInnovations, has compared the use and costs of an electric Class 8 heavy truck versus a diesel model in real-world operations.

The conclusion? The cost benefits can be huge… but might not be relevant for Europe.

The “Zero-Emission Trucking Testbed” study has gathered real-world operational data, including fleet and driver experiences, from five battery-electric trucks that covered over 200,000 km in the Montreal area during 12 months.

The study not only examines cost differences but also performance, reliability, safety, and operational best practices.

Expensive e-trucks with big government incentives

And while it’s worth looking at the entire study linked here, some interesting headlines can be extracted. Beginning with the TCO figures, which will likely be the most important to transport companies.

According to the study, over a 6-year lifespan, the electric truck will save over 157,000 CAD (nearly €100,000) compared to its diesel counterpart.

In this case, the study compared the Freightliner eCascadia to the diesel Cascadia model, and the Volvo VNR Electric to the VNR64T. Both are Class 8 heavy trucks, operated by Martin Brower and Loblaw.

But there are already some asterisks here. Starting with the purchase price: the Freightliner eCascadia models cost 560,000 CAD (€349,500) apiece, compared to just 195,000 CAD (€121,700) for the diesel Cascadia. But thanks to 325,000 CAD in regional incentives, the acquisition cost was just 235,000 CAD (€146,700) for the electric truck.

European e-trucks are closer in terms of price.

Two remarks can be made here, especially when compared to European pricing. One: e-truck incentives are unlikely to remain in the long term, especially at this level of subsidy.

And two: the price difference between European e-trucks and diesel counterparts is much smaller. For example, the Mercedes eActros 600 costs around €265,000, compared to around €175,000 for a comparable Actros diesel model.

Maintenance nearly equal, charging a lot cheaper…

After the initial purchase cost, most of the savings in the study come from much lower charging costs compared to fueling the ICE model, with maintenance seeming pretty similar. E-trucks might become cheaper to maintain in the future, but in this real-world scenario, it doesn’t seem to be the case just yet.

And with the difference in cost between charging and refueling, another asterisk can be made when comparing to Europe: Canada has much lower energy prices thanks to an abundance of hydroelectric power.

In the Montreal area, charging costs just 0.10 CAD/kWh (€0.062/kWh), while diesel ran these transport companies 1.24 CAD/liter (€0.77/liter).

… but not in Europe

In Europe, the average electricity prices are more than double what Canadians pay, even for commercial entities. Unless transport companies can charge their trucks with their own solar power, charging costs will likely exceed €0.30/kWh, especially when fast charging.

This puts the whole TCO calculation from this Canadian study on its head when applied to European scenarios. But transport companies can learn valuable insights from it, especially in operations.

The fleets didn’t just implement the electric trucks on diesel routes, but selected routes with predictable distances and optimized charging schedules to operate as efficiently as possible.

As public charging infrastructure improves, this will become less and less of a concern, but in this still-early phase, it is something to think about.

Canada is interesting for e-trucks, but Europe can be too

With all that said, electric trucks seem to have an advantage in built-up areas of Canada thanks to government incentives and low electricity prices. And in Europe, a 2024 TCO study by a German firm found an advantage for electric trucks.

But with EU regulatory deadlines looming and the e-truck market share still marginal, industry actors continue to urge for more incentives and faster development of charging infrastructure to accelerate the shift towards zero-emission road transport.