TRANSPORT Management 104

As usual, I feel called to share my thoughts with you on the sector developments of the past weeks and months. Please do not hesitate to respond and express your findings, thoughts, comments…

Electricity and hydrogen are closely related. With the hot breath of the various legislative bodies on their necks and out of a legitimate concern for the climate, manufacturers are turning on the 'gas tap' to fully focus on... electric vehicles. In the short term, electrically powered vehicles seem to be the highest achievable, closely followed by hydrogen. In this context, it looks like Nikola Motors is taking giant steps. The Americans have long since ceased to be satisfied with a role as a leading producer of hydrogen trucks. They recently entered into a partnership agreement with Iveco to start large-scale production of 'fuel cell' trucks in the short term. In addition, Nikola Motors announced that it will soon be able to launch a revolutionary battery on the market, which is said to be good for a range of no less than 1,300 kilometers. This feat would also have little impact on the useful payload, since the new battery is said to be 40% lighter than its lithium-ion predecessor. Nikola CEO Trevor Milton can hardly be accused of selfishness, as he is willing to share the intellectual property of his invention with other partners. It may seem too good to be true, but things could suddenly start moving very quickly…

“A battery that gives an electric truck 1,300 km of autonomy! That is the promise of the American Nikola Motors. Can it also keep that promise?”

Double-digit growth. The rise of (semi-)autonomous trucks is also causing a tidal wave. The market for self-driving vehicles could consist of 15,200 vehicles by 2025. Taking into account an average annual growth of 40%, this should increase to 81,800 in 2030. In the segment of (semi-)autonomous trucks, which was estimated at 260,100 vehicles last year, things are going much faster. Here, the 1.1 million unit mark is expected to be reached in 2025 (with an annual growth of 23.38%). This immediately makes it clear why the Volvo Group has decided to set up a special department with a 100% focus on self-driving vehicles (Volvo Autonomous Solutions).

The (more or less) good news of the month. After an uninterrupted rise since 2009, it was written in the stars that the European market for towed equipment would shrink in the course of this year. However, this market is falling less quickly than expected (6.6). The decline would be extended in 2020, but in 2021 it would already be going uphill again. We'll see what happens!