Barely 113 electric trucks registered in Belgium by 2023

The figures for Belgium are in line with European figures. In Europe, 346,986 new trucks were registered last year, up 16.3%. As many as 95.7% of these trucks still have a diesel engine.

In Belgium, a total of 10,058 new trucks were registered, up from 8,566 new registrations in 2022 (+17.4%). Again, the vast majority were diesel trucks, with 9,842 units.

Electric trucks make up only a fraction of the total in our country. With 113 new e-truck registrations, it is only 1.1%. Compared to the 24 electric trucks registered in 2022, this does represent an increase of 370.8%, but the numbers remain marginal.

The figures apply to all trucks from 3.5 tonnes upwards.

“No surprise”

“These figures are not surprising,” says Philippe Degraef, general manager of sector federation Febetra. “Such an electric truck is still three times more expensive than the diesel variant. The ‘total cost of ownership’ is still far too high. All shippers want the greenest possible transport, but only very few of them are willing to pay for it …”

Due to their limited range, electric trucks are only suitable for short trips or urban distribution. For long distances, they are not a full alternative and are not even an option today. The infrastructure is also lacking, to my knowledge there is not yet a single public charging station for electric trucks.”

Vans

Almost 1.5 million new vans were registered in Europe last year, up 14.6% from 2022. Some 82.6% of those new vans were equipped with a diesel engine, up from 85.7% in 2022. Here, though, electric vans already accounted for a 7.4% market share. A year earlier, it was still 5.4%.

There were also 32,593 new buses put into circulation in the EU last year, up 19.4%. Among buses, 62.3% were equipped with a diesel engine and 15.9% with an electric drive last year.