Exploring Electric Truck Utilisation in Business Networks

Licentiatavhandling, 2026

The electrification of heavy-duty freight transport plays a central role in climate and industrial policy in Europe. Despite increasing regulatory pressure and technological progress, the adoption of electric trucks remains limited. This indicates that the challenge is not only technological but also lies in how electric trucks are utilised in real-world freight operations. This licentiate thesis examines electric truck utilisation as an operational and relational challenge embedded in business networks.

Based on a qualitative study of Swedish freight transport, the thesis analyses how electric trucks are integrated into everyday operations at firm, relational, and network levels. The findings show that under current conditions, electric trucks require highly predictable transport missions, stable routes, and coordinated charging arrangements. Compared to diesel-based transport, this reduces operational flexibility and increases dependence on more detailed planning, access to infrastructure, and collaboration with various business partners.

Applying the Industrial Network Approach, the study shows how electric truck utilisation reshapes activities, resources, and actors within the business network. Charging infrastructure emerges as a critical resource, where access, ownership, and control directly influence economic viability and create new interdependencies among hauliers, transport buyers, intermediaries, energy actors, and vehicle manufacturers. Charging, in turn, becomes a central activity that needs to be coordinated for each vehicle and across actors sharing the same charging resources.

The thesis contributes to research on heavy-duty transport electrification by shifting attention from isolated barriers to the structural and relational conditions that set the terms for utilisation in practice. For industry, the findings highlight that successful electrification depends not only on vehicle performance, but on coordinated development of operations, charging resources, contractual arrangements, and collaboration across business networks.