Brussels, 12 March 2026 — Transport & Environment published its stock-take of the EU truck CO₂ regulation’s first effect: in the twelve months since the −15% manufacturer target took effect in July 2025, electric trucks took 5.6% of new registrations, up from 3.5% in the prior period. One in four electric trucks ever registered in Europe was sold in that single year — the clearest evidence yet that manufacturer-side CO₂ targets move supply, not just intentions.

The league table tells the real story. T&E’s frontrunners — the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark at 16–18% electric share of new truck sales — all pair the EU framework with national levers (grants, CO₂-graded tolls, exemptions). Germany leads the large markets. The finding validates the exact mechanism we track in Subsidy Watch: adoption follows the incentive map with near-mechanical precision. Meanwhile Daimler Truck has overtaken Volvo Group as Europe’s leading e-truck manufacturer by electric sales — a useful correction for fleets that still picture the segment’s ranking by diesel-era reputation.

The China benchmark in the same report. T&E puts China’s 2025 e-truck share at 15% on its (narrower) counting basis versus Europe’s ~5% — and explicitly frames CO₂ standards as industrial-policy defence: without ambitious targets, European truckmakers lose the technology race to China. That is also the read of European OEM lobbyists, and worth remembering when the 2030 −45% target next comes under political attack: the demand for European electric trucks is substantially a creature of this regulation. Our staircase-amendment analysis covers the 2026–2029 freeze that temporarily relieved the pressure.