Scania and Traton boss, Christian Levin has told automotive news website, Automotive World, that many of Europe’s leading truck manufacturers are at risk of missing ambitious 2030 CO2 reduction targets due to infrastructure failures and economic barriers.
Levin said that this is despite electric vehicle technology being ready for roll out.
The Scania chief warned that the truck makers will fall short of reaching the reduction targets.
His warning came as the VW owned Swedish truck maker revealed its results for the second quarter of 2025 which showed a 10 per cent downturn in second-quarter revenue to $AUD 7.95 billion (SEK49.9bn)
The Scania boss stressed that technology readiness was not the issue.
“Frankly, the problem isn’t technology: electric trucks and buses are ready and in production, and European commercial vehicle manufacturers can deliver on orders now, ” Levin told Automotive World.
“One bottleneck is infrastructure. Fewer than 1,000 truck-suitable chargers exist across the EU, megawatt charging is largely unavailable, and grid connection lead times are unworkable,” Levin said.
Heavy battery-electric truck adoption remains at just 1.5 per cent across Europe, despite truck makers successfully increasing deliveries year-on-year.
For its part, Scania introduced its Megawatt Charging System in June, which it claims is capable of charging trucks from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in under 30 minutes. Scania believes that by doing this, it has addressed the major issue of downtime anxiety among hauliers from its side, although other issues abound.
“Another obstacle is that economics are currently skewed against BEVs,” Levin said.
“Electricity is taxed more heavily than diesel in many member states, and high upfront costs and uncertainty around TCO remain a barrier for hauliers.
“To scale up our BEV offering at the pace we need to see, we urgently need political alignment on infrastructure, energy pricing and regulation,” Levin concluded
