Heavy-duty electric trucks as a coupled system transition: an overview of technology, charging, grid impacts, and operations

Review article, 2026

Heavy-duty trucks transport a large share of global freight and account for a considerable portion of road-transport emissions, making decarbonization a pressing priority. Heavy-duty electric trucks (HDETs) are a promising pathway, but adoption remains constrained by vehicle-level trade-offs (battery capacity, mass, and cost), limited charging access, grid constraints, and tight schedules, especially for long-haul operations. This review synthesizes recent research and selected technical reports and organizes the evidence using a coupled system perspective spanning vehicle technology, charging infrastructure, grid interaction, and fleet operations. We synthesize how battery energy density, lifetime, and cost influence driving range, payload, total cost of ownership, and life-cycle emissions. We review alternative charging technologies and modes for HDETs, including depot and overnight charging, opportunity charging with high-power or megawatt charging, and battery swapping. We then synthesize how charging technologies, charging infrastructure siting and sizing, and charging-grid integration influence infrastructure requirements, costs, and grid impacts. The reviewed studies suggest that low-power depot charging tends to impose limited local grid impacts, whereas megawatt-scale corridor charging often requires stronger grid capacity; on-site PV, storage, and coordinated charging can help, but constrained sites may still need targeted grid upgrades. Operational studies show that fleet planning, routing, charging scheduling, and automation-enabled driving control and platooning make electrified trucking reliable and cost-effective. Taken together, the evidence suggests that scaling HDETs depends on coordinated progress in technology, infrastructure, grid readiness, and operations rather than isolated improvements in any single layer. This coupled system transition implies that policy design should coordinate vehicle incentives, charging deployment, grid upgrades, and operational regulations across stakeholder needs and grid constraints.