The infrastructure needed to support zero-emission trucks will ultimately have to become a viable private business, even as governments may need to support its initial build-out, according to Daimler Truck CEO Karin Rådström.
Speaking exclusively to Autocar Professional at IAA Transportation, Rådström said public support could help reduce investment risk during the early stages of charging and hydrogen infrastructure development, but the long-term model would need to be commercially viable and private-led.
“Ultimately, long term, it has to be private, and it has to be a viable business,” Rådström said. “But I think in this phase where we are, where it’s starting to ramp up, it’s a little bit chicken-and-egg.”
Her comments come a day after she called for greater urgency in Europe, where the availability of zero-emission trucks is running ahead of the infrastructure required to support their adoption.
Rådström said the problem is not limited to Europe and could emerge as a constraint in other markets pursuing transport decarbonisation.
“I think it’s a challenge that’s generally underestimated, also in other markets,” she said. “If you have an ambition to be decarbonised, you need to start thinking very early on about the infrastructure.”
She said lessons from Europe could be useful for other regions as they plan their transition, particularly because infrastructure takes time to develop.
“I judge that that will ultimately be the thing that slows it down in most different markets,” Rådström said.
The challenge is most pronounced during the early stages of adoption. Infrastructure providers face low utilisation when relatively few zero-emission trucks are operating, while fleet customers can hesitate to invest in vehicles without sufficient charging or refuelling networks.
“The trucks aren’t there, so I don’t build the infrastructure. But then the customers don’t buy the trucks if the infrastructure isn’t there,” she said.
Rådström sees public support as important in breaking this cycle. Government intervention can help absorb some of the early risk while vehicle volumes and infrastructure utilisation build. Over time, however, the network would need to operate as a commercially sustainable private business.
Daimler Truck is already trying to apply lessons from the battery-electric transition to hydrogen.
Rådström said work on liquid-hydrogen refuelling infrastructure has begun even though Daimler Truck does not yet have hydrogen trucks in series production. The company is working with partners to ensure infrastructure development does not lag vehicle deployment.
“We don’t have the trucks yet in series production, but we’re already now really working also in different constellations to start building fuelling stations for liquid hydrogen, so that we don’t end up in that situation again,” she said.
For battery-electric trucks, Daimler Truck is involved in charging infrastructure through Milence, its joint venture with the Volvo Group and Traton Group. Rådström described the initiative as a way to kick-start infrastructure development and demonstrate what can be achieved as the market scales.
On hydrogen, too, she indicated that partnerships would be the preferred approach rather than Daimler Truck becoming an infrastructure operator in the long term.
“Our business is to build trucks,” Rådström said. “Make them stay on the road.”
While her warning a day earlier centred on Europe, Rådström said the situation there currently stands out because the scale of the problem is not receiving enough attention.
“The situation we see in Europe now is not getting enough attention. There’s not enough sense of urgency,” she said.
For other markets, the lesson from Europe is to start infrastructure planning before zero-emission truck volumes begin to rise. Without that, Rådström believes infrastructure itself could become the factor that determines how quickly the transition can move.