Imagine if all trucks were electric!!

The recent article by Angelin Mary GP, titled “Imagine if all trucks were electric” brings back the focus of automotive enthusiasts, service providers and enterprises on the much debated elements of connected and electrification in the trucking industry.

In the passenger vehicle (PV), there has been significant success across all the priority spending areas – autonomous, connected, electrification, and shared mobility space (ACES). Automotive enterprises are racing to get the latest in class advanced ADAS systems, smart infotainment systems for connected cars, connected platforms and consumer feasible EV systems.

In the light of commercial vehicles (CV), we see multiple initiatives by organizations and startups going green with their cab fleet: -

· Recently Accenture in India MD Ajay Vij highlighted the addition of over 200 EVs across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and NCR to reduce the carbon footprint

· Coupled with this, we see Punit K Goyal founded BluSmart showing strong organic growth of 15-20% month over month. The company plans to become profitable by the end of CY’23, posting a strong reply to critics and near incumbents

Thus while the cab segment is making significant progress, the article is instrumental in throwing renewed focus on the trucking segment which has been marred with multiple inefficiencies on operational, social and environmental front and is now ripe for transformation in both electric and connected mobility.

Some of the inefficiencies include (non-exhaustive) : -

· Inefficient routing and scheduling

· Manual and paper-based processes

· Lack of real-time visibility and poor driver health

· Empty backhauls and underutilized capacity

· Inefficient maintenance and repair

· Communication and collaboration challenges

Addressing these inefficiencies requires electric and connected trucks (mentioned as data center on wheels) to enable deployment of strong human less truck management systems, route optimizers, telematics, and electronic logging devices (ELDs) to improve planning, tracking, data management, and overall efficiency.

As mentioned by Angelin Mary GP, this won’t come without teething issues like initial high upfront costs, limited charging infrastructure in certain regions, and managing the transition for existing fleets.

However, my understanding suggests that advancements in technology, Indian talent, supportive policies, and industry collaboration by leading engineering service providers is expected to get some breakthroughs.