10-Point CO2 Miss Could Cost Daimler Truck €1.2 Billion, Says CEO

Daimler Truck could face around €1.2 billion in penalties if it misses its 2030 CO2 target for newly registered heavy-duty vehicles by 10 percentage points, CEO Karin Rådström said, as she called for greater urgency in Europe’s rollout of charging and hydrogen infrastructure.

Speaking at IAA Transportation, Rådström said every percentage point by which Daimler Truck potentially misses the target could translate into around €120 million in penalties. A 10-percentage-point shortfall, she said, could therefore result in around €1.2 billion in penalties, an amount she warned could effectively wipe out the global profitability of Mercedes-Benz Trucks for that year.

“If we fall short of that target, the penalties are massive. For every percentage that we potentially miss the target, we could face around €120 million in penalties,” Rådström said.

She said that by 2030, CO2 emissions from Daimler Truck’s newly registered heavy-duty fleet should be 43% lower than the 2019 baseline. Rådström called for a fast and pragmatic review of the CO2 regulations for heavy-duty vehicles, arguing that regulation needs to be connected with the rollout of charging and hydrogen infrastructure and other enabling conditions.

The warning comes as Europe faces a steep climb in zero-emission truck adoption over the remainder of the decade. Rådström said more than 60 zero-emission truck models and over 25 zero-emission bus models are already available in the market from Daimler Truck and its competitors. Despite that availability, only around 2% of trucks registered in Europe in 2025 were electric, she said.

According to Rådström, around 35% of all newly registered trucks in Europe would need to be battery-electric or hydrogen-powered by the end of the decade to achieve the 2030 CO2 targets.

“Going from 2% to 35% in less than five years is an enormous challenge,” she said, adding that the availability of vehicles was not the reason customers were hesitating. Instead, she identified infrastructure and cost parity with diesel as the two key hurdles.

On charging, Rådström said Europe currently has fewer than 2,000 public charging points for heavy-duty vehicles, with most offering standard CCS charging. By 2030, she said, around 35,000 megawatt charging points would be required to support the number of battery-electric trucks needed to meet the CO2 targets.

She painted a similar picture for hydrogen. Europe currently has around 187 hydrogen stations, according to Rådström, with most providing 350-bar refuelling, which she said was not suitable for trucks. Around 1,000 stations would be required by 2030, she added.

Rådström also called for stronger measures to improve the economics of zero-emission trucks for fleet operators. She cited CO2-based road tolls as one example, pointing to Germany, where she said the difference between tolls for a diesel and an electric truck is around 33-35 euro cents per kilometre, helping offset the higher initial investment in an electric truck.

However, she said only 13 of the EU’s 27 member states have implemented CO2-based tolls, and fewer than a handful have introduced a meaningful difference between electric and diesel trucks.

“We need to align policy with reality,” Rådström said. “Our industry is fully committed to deliver in the transformation, and you heard that our customers are also committed. But what we need now is the same level of urgency from the EU and from the member states.”

Rådström said Daimler Truck wants to lead the transformation towards zero-emission transportation, but warned that without greater urgency around the enabling conditions, the regulatory framework would need to be revisited.