Europe’s e-truck sales boom while the charging network lags far behind

Europe’s Electric Truck Sales Are Booming, But the Public Charging Network Is Still the Binding Constraint for 2030

Europe’s heavy-duty electric truck market is growing faster than the infrastructure required to support it. Sales of electric trucks in Europe jumped 47% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, yet the availability of public, truck-dedicated high-power charging remains critically insufficient to meet the European Union’s 2030 CO2 reduction targets. The gap between fleet adoption and charging buildout is now the single largest risk to the decarbonization of road freight, and it is widening.

The Data: A 47% Sales Jump Meets a Stalled Charging Curve

The headline number from the first half of 2026 is unambiguous. According to an analysis published on July 29, 2026, Europe’s electric truck registrations grew by 47% year-on-year in H1 2026. This acceleration is driven by total cost of ownership parity in several long-haul use cases, tightening CO2 standards, and the expansion of zero-emission zones in major logistics hubs. However, the same report warns that this growth trajectory is threatened by a charging gap that could derail the 2030 goals.

The core problem is not the number of charging stations per se, but the type and location. Most public chargers in Europe are designed for passenger cars, with power outputs and cable lengths that are often incompatible with heavy-duty trucks. A typical heavy-duty long-haul truck has a battery pack of 300–750 kWh, compared to 300–400 kWh for a city bus, and individual battery packs weigh around 500 kg (about 1,100 lbs). Charging such a vehicle requires high-power direct current (DC) chargers, ideally Megawatt Charging System (MCS) units, which are still rare outside of pilot projects.

The Infrastructure Gap in Numbers

The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its Global EV Outlook 2026 published on May 20, 2026, provides a sobering baseline. The IEA tracks both truck-dedicated chargers and public passenger-car chargers that can accommodate truck fast charging. For truck-exclusive chargers, the IEA uses the higher value reported by either eTrucker or EAFO; for chargers accessible to both light- and heavy-duty vehicles, it uses eTrucker data and applies the average of stations and points. Even with this inclusive methodology, the total number of public chargers suitable for heavy-duty trucks in Europe remains in the low thousands.

This is nowhere near the density required. The Sia Partners study, published on July 29, 2026, concludes that road freight electrification depends as much on fleets as on a dense, high-power European charging network. The study’s key finding is that the current public charging network for heavy-duty trucks in Western Europe is the weak link in the entire value chain. While private depot charging can cover a significant share of overnight and short-dwell charging, long-haul operations—the core of Class 8 trucking—require a public network with high-power chargers at strategic intervals along major freight corridors.

Comparing Europe’s Ambition with China’s Plan

The contrast with China is instructive and stark. China is not waiting for the market to solve the infrastructure problem; it is mandating a national network. According to a report published on June 17, 2026, China targets 1.6 million electric heavy trucks by 2030. To support this rollout, China plans to build around 3,000 heavy-truck charging and battery-swap stations by 2030. The network is to be developed alongside the motorway system, with zero-carbon road freight corridors created on around 30,000 kilometres of key routes.

This is a scale of planning and investment that Europe has not yet matched. The table below compares the current state and near-term targets across key metrics.

Comparison: Europe vs. China Heavy-Duty Truck Charging (2026–2030)

The table highlights a critical asymmetry. China has set explicit, numeric targets for both truck deployment and infrastructure. Europe has a deployment target driven by CO2 regulation, but no equivalent binding target for public truck charging infrastructure. The IEA data suggests that without a coordinated push, the charging network will lag demand by a wide margin.

The Private Sector Response: Milence and Radius

The private sector is stepping in to fill the void, but its efforts are still early-stage. On July 9, 2026, business mobility provider Radius announced that it had added the Milence charging network to its list of partners. The Milence network is built specifically to serve heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in long-haul operations, featuring high-power charging stations, including MCS chargers, strategically located along major transport corridors.

This partnership is significant because it addresses a key barrier to adoption: access. Fleet operators using Radius’s platform will now be able to locate, reserve, and pay for charging on the Milence network through a single interface. This reduces the operational complexity of running an electric truck fleet, which is often cited as a bigger hurdle than the upfront vehicle cost.

Milence itself is a joint venture between Volvo Group, Traton Group, and Daimler Truck. In May 2026, the venture secured €120 million in additional financing to accelerate its European rollout, according to a report published on October 1, 2022 (updated with recent news). This capital injection is a vote of confidence in the long-haul electric truck market, but €120 million is a fraction of what is needed to build a pan-European network. For context, a single high-power charging site with multiple MCS dispensers can cost several million euros, including grid connection fees.

Why Depot Charging Alone Won’t Work

Some fleet operators argue that depot charging is sufficient, pointing out that trucks return to base at night. This argument fails for long-haul operations, which represent a large share of road freight emissions. A truck with a 300–750 kWh battery pack has a range of roughly 300–500 km under load, depending on terrain and weather. A typical long-haul route in Europe, such as Rotterdam to Milan or Hamburg to Lyon, exceeds this range. Without public high-power charging, these routes are impossible for battery-electric trucks.

The Sia Partners study emphasizes this point: the electrification of road freight depends as much on fleets as on a dense, high-power European charging network. Depot charging can cover the first and last mile of a journey, but the middle miles require public infrastructure. The current network, with its low number of truck-compatible chargers, is not dense enough to support the 47% sales growth trajectory.

The 2030 Risk: A Self-Inflicted Bottleneck

The 2030 CO2 reduction targets for heavy-duty vehicles are legally binding in the EU. The sales data from H1 2026 shows that manufacturers and early-adopter fleets are willing to buy electric trucks. The bottleneck is not supply or demand; it is infrastructure. The TechTimes report from July 29, 2026, explicitly states that the charging gap threatens 2030 goals. This is not a speculative risk; it is a mathematical one.

Consider the following: if electric truck sales continue to grow at 47% per year, the cumulative fleet by 2030 will be in the hundreds of thousands. Each of these trucks will need to charge somewhere. If the public network remains at its current low-thousands level of truck-compatible chargers, the average wait time at a public charger will be measured in hours, not minutes. This would destroy the economic case for electric trucks, which depend on high utilization rates to offset their higher upfront cost.

The Market Size Context

The broader EV charging station market is growing, but it is not growing fast enough in the heavy-duty segment. A market report published on October 1, 2022, notes that the global EV charging station market is expanding, with recent developments including PowerX’s partnership with the Premium Charging Alliance (PCA) in July 2026, allowing Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen EV owners roaming access to PowerX stations. However, these developments are focused on passenger cars. The heavy-duty segment requires different hardware, different site locations, and different grid connections. It cannot simply piggyback on the passenger-car network.

What Needs to Happen

The path forward requires three coordinated actions. First, the EU must set binding targets for public truck charging infrastructure, similar to China’s 3,000-station plan. Second, grid connection lead times must be shortened; in many European countries, connecting a high-power charger to the grid can take 18–24 months, which is longer than the vehicle procurement cycle. Third, the private sector must continue to invest in MCS-capable networks like Milence, but it cannot do it alone. The €120 million raised by Milence in May 2026 is a start, but it is insufficient for a network that needs to cover thousands of kilometers of motorways.

The data is clear: Europe is winning the battle on truck sales but losing the war on infrastructure. The 47% growth in H1 2026 is a positive signal, but without a corresponding growth in public charging capacity, it will hit a ceiling. The 2030 goals are achievable, but only if the charging gap is treated as the emergency it is.

Sources

• Charged EVs — https://chargedevs.com/newswire/radius-gives-its-customers-access-to-milences-european-heavy-duty-electric-truck-charging-network (Thu, 09 Jul 2026)
• TechTimes — https://www.techtimes.com/articles/321977/20260729/europes-electric-trucks-jumped-47-h1-2026-charging-gap-threatens-2030-goals.htm (Wed, 29 Jul 2026)
• Sia Partners — https://www.sia-partners.com/en/insights/publications/electric-trucks-europe-faces-charging-infrastructure-challenge (Wed, 29 Jul 2026)
• trans.info — https://trans.info/en/china-electric-trucks-483596 (Wed, 17 Jun 2026)
• IEA — https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2026/electric-vehicle-charging-chap-6-and-10 (Wed, 20 May 2026)
• Market Research Future — https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/electric-vehicle-charging-station-market-5401 (Sat, 01 Oct 2022)