Kilometres a year: one or two charges a day
An electric truck earns its money per kilometre, so the more it drives, the more it saves. How far it gets in a day depends on two things: its range, and how often it charges. Once at night in the depot, or once more during the day, at a loading dock or during the driver’s break. Choose below, and see for twenty trucks in eleven countries how many kilometres a year that gives, and whether it is cheaper than diesel.
In short
Calculating…
Running the business case for eleven countries and twenty trucks…
1Twenty trucks, their kilometres and their result
The result over five years per truck against a diesel tractor doing the same kilometres, in thousands of euros. Green is cheaper than diesel, red more expensive.
more than €75k cheaper€25–75k cheaperup to €25k cheaperup to €25k more expensive€25–75k more expensivemore than €75k more expensive
driver limit the truck could go further, but one driver may not: 9 hours a day at 70 km/h, about 630 km. estimate a price or range its maker has not published.
2How we count
Kilometres a day = 80% of the maker’s range (winter, reserve, motorway) × 1, 1.5 or 2 (a full charge at night, plus nothing, half or a full charge during the day), but never more than one driver may drive: 9 hours at about 70 km/h, roughly 630 km. Drivers taking turns could keep it going longer; this page counts one driver a day.
Kilometres a year = kilometres a day × 230 working days. The diesel truck drives the same, so the comparison is always the same work.
Power: the night charge at the depot price, the day charge at the country’s public truck-charging price. The price per kWh the business case uses is the mix of the two, weighted by the energy each one delivers.
Everything else is the business case of each country, over five years, with a diesel tractor at €120k and the truck prices of this site. Nine Chinese makers have not published a European price; we use €224k (Reuters, March 2026: up to 30% below the European average of €320,000).
Only one charge a day, and nothing from the war or the tolls? That is the stress test. One truck in detail, country by country: electric truck or diesel.
Sources
- Range: each truck’s sheet on this site (the maker’s figure); Skyworth from its battery; FAW has published none.
- Diesel: European Commission, Weekly Oil Bulletin, this week and the week of 23 February 2026; Switzerland: Touring Club Schweiz.
- Driving time: Regulation (EC) 561/2006, 9 hours a day (10 hours twice a week).
- Everything else: the business case and its data, per country.