- Nikit Abhyankar, Narayan Gopinathan, Aditya Khandekar, Nihan Karali, Amol Phadke, Deepak Rajagopal

This study analyzes the potential for truck electrification to reduce India’s emissions, fuel imports, and cost of freight through an estimation of cost of production and operation based on international battery prices. The study finds that battery electric trucks (BET), once mature, could have lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than diesel trucks across multiple weight classes and they also mitigate fuel price volatility, an issue endemic to diesel trucking. BETs might entail a small payload penalty which can be mitigated through light weighting strategies and any revenue losses offset by fuel cost savings. Simple calculations suggest that, at the current average grid emissions intensity for India, BETs reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of freight by 9% to 35% across different classes of trucks when compared to diesel in addition to eliminating air pollution along highways and congested areas. 

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