Diesel is the workhorse of the economy. It fuels most heavy machinery, from tractors to trucks. These applications have traditionally been considered “hard-to-abate” – too costly and technically challenging to decarbonise easily.
One grievance aired by fuel protesters last month was that there is “no alternative to diesel”, making carbon taxes feel unfair and ineffective.
This was true historically. Batteries were too expensive, bulky and heavy to realistically allow electricity to compete with diesel.
But electric-vehicle technology has been advancing at a spectacular pace, and a tipping point is now emerging in the electrification of freight. The speed at which this is happening in leading countries is one of the most underappreciated stories in the energy transition.
RM Block
Sales of zero-emissions medium-sized trucks and vans (freight vehicles weighing below 12 tonnes) reached a 21 per cent sales share across Europe in 2025, more than doubling from 10 per cent the previous year.
In front-running countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, the share exceeded 60 per cent in this segment. Meanwhile, 54 per cent of new city buses across Europe are now fully electric.
Heavy trucks (those weighing more than 12 tonnes) are electrifying more slowly, reaching less than 3 per cent across Europe in 2025. But China offers a glimpse of what may follow.
The pace and scale of Chinese freight electrification is eye-opening: 29 per cent of all new heavy trucks sold in China last year were fully electric. The growth rate is even more striking: global sales of electric trucks grew by almost 80 per cent in 2024 alone, driven largely by China’s expansion.
European front-runners Denmark and the Netherlands are beginning to keep pace. Electric heavy truck sales surged in late 2025, reaching about 16 and 14 per cent of new sales respectively, driven by strong policy signals and EU truck CO₂ standards, which have already begun to shift manufacturer behaviour and accelerate deployment.
The same cannot be said for Ireland. In the first quarter of this year, there was just one single new registration of an electric heavy commercial vehicle – a market share of only 0.1 per cent. Progress is going backwards, not forwards.
With battery costs continuing to fall steeply (45 per cent last year alone), and oil more insecure than ever, the future of road transport is undoubtedly electric
As Eamonn Mulholland, a researcher specialising in heavy-duty freight, has noted, Ireland is well-positioned to lead in this transition: short driving distances, a high share of domestic freight, and strong renewable energy potential all work in our favour. We are lagging badly, but the barriers are solvable.
The economics are increasingly favourable. Battery costs keep falling, and while electric goods vehicles remain significantly more expensive than diesel, they are much cheaper to run – electric motors use far less energy than combustion engines, and electricity is taxed less than diesel.
One study suggests that these savings can offset the higher upfront cost within five years. The Government’s new grant scheme is generous, offering companies up to €500,000 annually to close part of the increased upfront cost, alongside support for depot charging infrastructure.
So if the technology and economics problems are largely solved, why is adoption so slow?
Ireland’s haulage sector has limited capacity to navigate this transition alone. According to Michael Taft, researcher for Siptu, haulage in Ireland is “a fragmented sector, with high levels of subcontracting and little capacity to invest and absorb external shocks”. That makes targeted policy support essential.
A fundamental barrier is infrastructure. Electric trucks require high-powered chargers at depots for overnight charging, and a dedicated network of high-powered public chargers at ports, logistics hubs and motorways. These “megawatt-scale” chargers are being standardised and rolled out across Europe, and can recharge a truck during a mandated rest break. But today, Ireland has none.
Other countries offer policy lessons. In the Netherlands, zero-emission freight zones across cities have driven a surge in sales of electric trucks, and will improve air quality and lower noise pollution, making cities healthier and more pleasant to live in.
In China, a scrappage scheme contributed to a huge surge in electric heavy truck sales, which reached a 50 per cent market share in December of last year. China also has an extensive charging network, and a competitive domestic supply chain for electric trucks.
With battery costs continuing to fall steeply (45 per cent last year alone), and oil more insecure than ever, the future of road transport is undoubtedly electric. Whether Ireland will benefit depends on how quickly the barriers are removed. This matters for how we interpret and react to the recent fuel protests. If there truly were no alternatives to diesel, then the haulage industry and the exchequer must absorb the cost of exposure to oil. But that premise is rapidly eroding.
Hannah Daly is Professor of Sustainable Energy at University College Cork
