Electric trucks are becoming a more common sight on Europe's roads. But in car transport specifically, that shift is moving a lot slower than in the rest of the transport sector. Anyone setting an ESG target now, or choosing a transport partner based on sustainability, wants to know where that gap comes from. And more specifically: which routes can already go electric, and which will take years.
That gap isn't about the technology. It's about the charging infrastructure along the route, and that already exists on some European corridors, while on most it's still years away.
The numbers: electrification is accelerating, but not everywhere
The broader European transport sector is moving fast. According to figures ACEA shared via Logistik Heute, the EU registered around 5,000 new electric trucks above 16 tonnes in 2025, 51% more than a year earlier.
The Netherlands leads the way. Growth in electric medium and heavy trucks here came in at 205%, accounting for 16% of all EU registrations in that class. Vans are moving fast too: the share of electric vans in new sales rose from 6.1% to 11.2% within a year.
The acceleration is visible at EU level too: the market share of newly registered electric trucks above 16 tonnes rose from 1.5% in 2024 to 3% in the third quarter of 2025, with expectations of more than 5% for 2026 as a whole.
In car transport specifically, that pace is much slower. During an ECG European Parliament Dinner Debate in May 2026, the share of electric trucks in finished vehicle logistics was estimated at under 1% EU-wide. One Dutch ECG member put the figure for the Netherlands itself at around 10%. Both figures are unofficial; no hard measurement exists yet. But the direction is clear: the rise of electric trucks is moving faster across the rest of the sector than in car transport.
Part of that acceleration isn't coming from ambition, but from regulation: the Dutch truck toll makes older diesel trucks noticeably more expensive per kilometre, while electric trucks get a considerably lower rate. That shifts the replacement decision for transport companies toward electric, independent of any sustainability goal. In effect, the toll works as an unintended but effective lever for electrification.
The two corridors already ahead
Not every route is at the same stage. Two TEN-T pilot corridors are clearly ahead: Scandinavian–Mediterranean and North Sea–Baltic. Countries including the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have endorsed roadmaps for these corridors.
| TEN-T pilot corridor | Endorsed by (incl.) |
| Scandinavian–Mediterranean | Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania |
| North Sea–Baltic | Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania |
Together, these two corridors already counted 164 operational charging pools for heavy transport in April 2026, with 260 more planned.
These figures were shared by the European Commission and CINEA in April 2026. They come on top of a broader investment: the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) is allocating €438.9 million for 5,729 charging points for heavy transport, including 1,308 Megawatt Charging System installations.
Germany, one of the endorsing countries, has meanwhile started its own physical rollout in concrete terms. Autobahn GmbH awarded the first contracts for charging infrastructure along German motorways in early July 2026: 124 locations with 836 charging points in the first tranche, a large share of which are megawatt chargers for heavy transport. The target for 2030 is 350 locations, with roughly €1 billion in national funding. That kind of national rollout alongside EU financing is what makes a corridor genuinely usable in practice.
What sets these corridors apart isn't only the funding. It's that several countries agreed at the same time to roll out the same route, creating a continuous charging network instead of isolated charging points that stop at the border.
Why most routes aren't ready yet
The CEO of MAN summed up the problem during the ECG debate this way: "the challenge is not the equipment." The grid connection, the permits and the incomplete charging infrastructure along cross-border routes hold back electrification, not the trucks themselves.
Car transport makes this especially difficult. Other sectors often run fixed, predictable routes between two points. Car transport changes loading and unloading locations with every trip, which makes planning charging moments more complex than for a shuttle service.
Logistik Schmitt in Germany shows when it does work. The company runs three electric Mercedes eActros on a short, fixed shuttle route, saving €3,000 a month in tolls, alongside 56 tonnes of CO₂ emissions a year. The business case works once the route is short and predictable. For cross-border or variable car transport, those figures are still missing.
Also alternative fuels in car transport already play a role for this reason too. Not every route needs to wait for a charging point to become more sustainable.
What this means for anyone planning now
For anyone choosing a transport partner based on sustainable car transport, the picture is more nuanced than "electric transport is already here" or "electric transport is still years away." The answer depends on the route.
On the two frontrunner corridors, electric car transport could become a realistic alternative within a foreseeable timeframe. The payback period (TCO break-even) against diesel is estimated in the Netherlands at 2 to 5 years, though that's a wide range that depends heavily on truck type and annual mileage. On other routes, especially cross-border ones, infrastructure remains the limiting factor for now.
That gap also matters for ESG reporting. 65% of European transport and logistics companies now say they experience a competitive advantage from sustainability, up from 35% a year earlier. At the same time, European transport emissions still rose slightly in 2024, by 0.7%. The sense that the sector is making progress is running ahead of what the numbers show. For logistics for OEMs and other parties that want to demonstrate concrete progress, it's therefore more useful to look at what's already possible on their own routes than at the general sentiment in the sector.
As long as you know which corridors are ready and which aren't, you can plan around it. We track that charging infrastructure per corridor, so we can choose the best mode of transport per route within car transport across Europe. Want to know what that means for your routes? Get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
What is a TEN-T charging corridor?
TEN-T stands for the Trans-European Transport Network: Europe's core transport routes for road, rail and water. On two of these corridors, Scandinavian–Mediterranean and North Sea–Baltic, several countries are jointly rolling out charging infrastructure for heavy transport.
When will electric car transport be as fast as diesel?
That varies by route. On short, predictable routes with sufficient charging infrastructure, electric transport is already viable today. On cross-border or variable routes, that infrastructure is often still missing, which makes electric transport less practical there for now.
Which countries are leading on charging infrastructure for trucks?
The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are among the countries that have endorsed the two TEN-T pilot corridors. The Netherlands is also well ahead of the EU average on registration growth for electric trucks.
Source: ACEA figures via Logistik Heute (25 June 2026); ECG European Parliament Dinner Debate, reported by Automotive Logistics (6 May 2026); European Commission / CINEA, Clean Transport Corridor Initiative, reported via trans.info (10 June 2026); Autobahn GmbH / German Federal Ministry of Transport, reported by Autogazette.de (4 July 2026); ING THINK, "European transport in 2026: A capacity reset, replacement waves, and the electrification push" (15 January 2026); ING, "New Dutch truck toll forces transport sector into faster renewal" (ing.nl).
