India’s freight sector contributes 13–14% to GDP
Smart Freight Centre (SFC) India has launched its report Data Partnership for Indian Road Freight which highlights evidence from freight operations that can potentially guide the country’s transition to Zero-Emission Trucks (ZETs).
The findings align with the Government’s PM e-DRIVE scheme, which has allocated Rs.500 crore to support electric truck adoption, and NITI Aayog’s e-FAST India platform, which promotes collaborative approaches to freight electrification.
India’s freight sector contributes 13–14 percent of GDP and supports more than 22 million livelihoods. Yet medium and heavy-duty trucks, which make up only 3 percent of India’s vehicle stock, generate about 34 percent of road transport CO2 emissions. The report highlights that addressing this imbalance through electrification is central to India’s climate goals and its long-term logistics strategy.
Endorsing the report and its findings, Sudhendu J. Sinha, Adviser, E-Mobility, at NITI Aayog, said on 8 Sept, “The Data Partnership Program, led by Smart Freight Centre in collaboration with a diverse set of ecosystem partners, represents a pivotal step in advancing the zero-emission freight transition.
“By harnessing granular operational data from shippers and logistics service providers, the program facilitates a bottom-up assessment to identify where and how zero-emission trucks can be deployed in a technically viable and economically sound manner.”
The Data Partnership Program analysed more than 50 use cases across 50 freight routes, working directly with over 20 shippers and logistics service providers. The analysis showed that nearly half of all assessed truck movements take place along just two highways—NH 44 and NE 4—indicating where charging infrastructure should be prioritized.
Prof. Dr. Ing. Christoph Wolff, CEO of Smart Freight Centre, “At the heart of this initiative is a simple but powerful insight: the economic viability of e-truck deployment depends on real-world use cases, shaped by factors such as vehicle duty cycles, load profiles, route conditions, and charging opportunities. This is why the program’s unique Data Partnership framework—anchored in data voluntarily shared by partners across key industries—is so critical.”
Case studies illustrate how specific sectors could benefit from electrification. In the cement industry, which relies heavily on predictable point-to-point movements, electric trucks are projected to reach cost parity within five years on routes under 250 km.
On these routes, operational savings of around 40 percent are possible, while reducing annual emissions by about 50 tonnes of CO2 per truck. At an inland container depot, replacing diesel trucks with electric vehicles in inter-carting operations could reduce emissions by an estimated 1,061 tonnes of CO2 per year, with both leasing and direct purchase models proving financially competitive over a ten-year horizon.
The report highlights that early adoption is most viable in sectors with high-frequency and predictable freight flows—such as cement, containerized logistics, e-commerce, FMCG, and ports—where depot-based charging or hub-and-spoke models can support efficient operations.
The report recommends a shift from pilot projects involving 10–50 trucks to corridor-level adoption involving thousands of trucks across diversified applications. It also proposes establishing a Data Partnership Innovation Hub to bring together shippers, fleet operators, OEMs, financiers, and policymakers. Such a hub would provide access to aggregated operational data, support investment planning, and help align incentives for corridor-scale deployment. Fiinews.com
