Why freight is the next frontier of the energy transition

This article is authored by Mathsy Kutty, The Climate Pledge, Amazon, and Sarika Chakravarty, director of implementation, South and West Asia, C40 Cities.

Twenty electric trucks. Six hundred commercial trips. Two hundred and eight thousand kilometres on the Bengaluru–Chennai highway – matching diesel on turnaround times and costs closing in. Five long-term shipper contracts followed. Then a 4.2x surge in e-truck orders.

Freight (HT PHOTO)

India's electric freight moment isn't coming. It's here.

Nearly 90% of India's crude oil is imported, roughly half consumed by transportation. With freight demand expected to grow 5x to ~17 million trucks by 2050, every year of inaction deepens a structural vulnerability. When oil prices spike - as they inevitably do - logistics margins tighten, shipping costs rise, and those costs are passed on across the economy – to consumers.

Electric freight can reduce exposure to imported fuel volatility, stabilise logistics costs, and sharpen industrial competitiveness. For governments, it can align transport, energy, and industrial policy under one lever.

Early deployments on closed-loop routes in cement, steel, and mining have already delivered 25–40% logistics cost reductions. The harder test - open highways with variable routes and no captive charging - is now being passed too.

A recent national framework guidance report has mapped 20 priority highway corridors for phased electrification by 2027, suggesting an ecosystem approach for deployment. What India demonstrates on open highways can be replicated across other developing nations that face similar pressures and collectively account for the majority of future freight growth.

China scaled fastest — electric heavy trucks hit 54% monthly market share by December 2025, backed by control of ~85% of global battery manufacturing. Europe is advancing through mandates, with registrations rising 64% year-on-year. North America lags at 0.5% despite 41% of routes falling within battery range.

India need not follow any single model. But the pattern is clear: where policy, economics, and demonstration converge, adoption accelerates.

This is not swapping oil dependency for lithium dependency. Grid constraints, critical mineral supply chains, battery end-of-life, and employment displacement in diesel value chains are legitimate concerns. But unlike oil, these are engineering and policy problems with visible solutions - domestic mineral processing, second-life battery markets, grid modernisation, and workforce transition programmes already underway.

Fleet operators gain cost predictability. Shippers get measurable scope 3 reductions grounded in operations, not offsets. The government reduces oil import exposure. These benefits accrue to the balance sheet — and it is the balance sheet that determines the pace of adoption.

Every year of delay is a year of diesel lock-in in fleet cycles that last a decade. The technology is proven. The economics are converging. Electrification isn't just a climate imperative — it's a hedge against the next oil price shock. The only question is whether India acts before that shock arrives.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Mathsy Kutty, The Climate Pledge, Amazon, and Sarika Chakravarty, director of implementation, South and West Asia, C40 Cities.