Scaling Electric Trucks on Indian Highways

In India, 50% of vehicle freight traffic travels along just seven major corridors. These highways are the backbone of industrial and commercial activities, ensuring the seamless movement of goods across the country. As India advances electric mobility, putting battery electric trucks (BETs) on these high-traffic highways can aggregate demand, improve infrastructure utilization, and provide a proof point for widespread BET adoption.

With over 1,400 BETs already on the road in India, the conversation is shifting from why to deploy BETs to how to deploy them effectively. This article highlights five key insights for governments, fleet operators, charging providers, financiers, and OEMs. From identifying priority corridors and selecting the right vehicle technologies to planning charging infrastructure and preparing the grid, these lessons can help accelerate the next phase of India’s electric freight transition.

1. Short-listing high-potential corridors is a key first step for scalable deployment

Prioritizing the right corridors is a critical first step, as it can support early truck adoption, demonstrate successful deployments, maximize infrastructure utilization, and build momentum for broader corridor electrification. Public and private stakeholders in India have already begun identifying key corridors. Under the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries provides subsidies for charging and grid infrastructure deployment, with guidelines that prioritize high-traffic highways connecting major cities.

In addition, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has identified the top 10 highways best suited for BET deployment. The list was developed by first identifying national highways between 100 and 400 kilometers in length, followed by a down-selection process based on traffic density, industrial activity, grid readiness, stakeholder alignment, and other criteria.

Industry players have also initiated corridor development by prioritizing deployments on routes based on origin-destination pairs, such as those connecting raw material sources to industrial production facilities, where trucks travel in closed-loop patterns. Some corridor pilots also anchor around key industrial hubs and build outward following a hub-and-spoke logic.

2. BET cost competitiveness with diesel is achievable across multiple corridors

While the up-front purchase cost of a BET is currently two to four times that of a diesel truck, BETs have the potential to achieve cost parity with diesel across several corridors, mainly driven by fuel savings. Key enabling factors include higher vehicle tonnage, longer daily driving distances, lower electricity tariffs, and flatter terrain. Exhibits 2a and 2b show the seven-year total cost of ownership (TCO) of two common BET types, 55-ton and 18.5-ton gross vehicle weight (GVW) trucks, across three representative corridors: Delhi–Jaipur, Chennai–Bengaluru, and Kolkata–Haldia.

This analysis has four key findings:

• First, across the two truck segments, 55-ton BETs are already approaching cost parity with diesel, while parity remains harder to achieve for 18.5-ton trucks. One key reason is the higher up-front cost gap in the smaller segment: a 55-ton BET costs roughly twice as much as its diesel equivalent, whereas an 18.5-ton BET costs three to four times more. At the same time, 55-ton diesel trucks have poorer fuel economy, therefore, switching to BETs generates larger fuel savings in that segment.
• Second, BET total cost of ownership is highly sensitive to the electricity price charged to fleets. A 1% increase in electricity price can lead to a 10% increase in TCO. The state-level EV tariff is one of the key factors influencing electricity prices. BET fuel cost savings are more significant on routes with relatively low EV tariffs, such as Delhi–Jaipur and Kolkata–Haldia. Charging station utilization also affects electricity prices, with higher utilization leading to lower prices. For example, if utilization on the Chennai–Bengaluru route increases by 3% annually instead of 1%, the TCO of a 55-ton BET can be reduced by approximately 10%.
• Third, longer daily driving distances improve economics, enabling viability even on routes with high electricity prices. For example, a 55-ton BET requires a driving distance of 170 km per day to achieve cost parity with a diesel truck on the Kolkata–Haldia route, which has comparatively low electricity prices. In contrast, on the Chennai–Bengaluru route, where the electricity price is higher, cost parity is achieved at around 230 km per day. Optimized route and fleet planning can help achieve these higher utilizations.
• Finally, elevation profile also affects corridor-level BET economics. Steeper routes lead to increased fuel consumption. BETs, however, can recover a portion of energy via regenerative braking when traveling downhill. A 55-ton BET’s fuel cost increases by about 13% on the steeper Bengaluru–Chennai route as compared with Kolkata–Haldia, while a diesel truck’s fuel cost increase is almost double at about 27%.

3. Battery swapping is emerging as a complementary solution to fixed charging

In addition to fixed charging, stakeholders have started deploying battery swapping for BETs on highways. With battery-swapping technology, fleet operators purchase the truck without the battery and subscribe to a swapping service, paying the battery-swap operator (BSO) a service fee based on mutual agreement.

Exhibit 3 shows the TCO of fixed charging and battery-swapping technologies for a 55-ton truck on three corridors. The analysis shows that BET battery swapping can be cost competitive with fixed charging across all corridors, depending on swap-station utilization and the resulting service fee (INR/kWh) charged to fleet operators.

On routes with relatively low EV tariffs, such as Kolkata–Haldia, battery-swapping operators need to achieve higher infrastructure utilization for swapping to remain cost competitive. This is because swapping involves higher fixed hardware and battery costs, reducing the cost advantage gained from lower electricity tariffs compared with charging.

Apart from economic viability, certain operational considerations are important for fleet operators as they consider battery-swapping technology in comparison to charging:

• Purchasing the vehicle without the battery reduces up-front capital expenditure burden but leads to higher fuel cost. Additionally, a BET without the battery would be associated with lower residual value after the end of its operation.
• Charging downtime is significantly reduced with swapping, making it a viable solution for use cases with strict turnaround time requirements.
• Unlike the Combined Charging System standard for fixed charging, there is no common standard for battery swapping. This can create uncertainty about future interoperability and increase the cost of switching to another BSO.

Overall, battery swapping can reduce charging downtime and lower truck purchase costs. To unlock its full potential, innovative financing models for swapping infrastructure and spare batteries are needed, along with supportive policy measures to enable an interoperable standard.

4. Infrastructure must be sited around traffic, grid capacity, and land availability

Charging infrastructure planning is a critical part of corridor development. The location and number of chargers need to be carefully optimized: too few chargers can cause delays in truck charging and disrupt schedules, while too many can reduce utilization rates and weaken the return on investment.

Therefore, charging locations need to align with existing truck operations to minimize disruption. Co-location with truck stops, industrial parks, warehouses, restaurants, or business clusters allows charging to occur during planned dwell times. Grid capacity is another key factor to consider, especially given the high-power requirements of truck charging. Five 240 kW chargers can result in megawatt-level peak load. Placing stations near high-voltage feeder lines with sufficient spare capacity can reduce the need for new feeders or transformer upgrades, thereby lowering project costs. Practical site factors also matter, including land availability and cost, proximity to highways, and topography. Placement of chargers before a long uphill segment, for example, can improve operational efficiency. RMI’s publication Highways of Progress features examples of how charging infrastructure can be planned along key corridors in India.

5. Proactive coordination between DISCOMs and CPOs is key to delivering reliable, affordable, and clean truck charging

Deploying BETs on Indian highways will require proactive interstate coordination, as well as coordination across stakeholders like state distribution companies (DISCOMs). While high-capacity truck charging can create new electricity demand and therefore revenue for DISCOMs, it also introduces several challenges. These include managing uncertain peak loads and potential system disruptions, bearing the up-front costs of upgrading grid infrastructure, and navigating unclear business case viability in the early stages due to low utilization of chargers. In the meantime, charge point operators (CPOs) face challenges such as prolonged and uncertain interconnection timelines, limited visibility into grid capacity and upgrade costs, and high capital and operating expenses driven by tariffs and infrastructure requirements.

These challenges are interdependent. Better coordination between DISCOMs and CPOs can unlock a “win-win” outcome, improving grid planning and asset utilization for DISCOMs while enhancing project viability for CPOs. In particular, collaboration could focus on the following areas:

• Proactive regional-level load forecasts: DISCOMs and CPOs can align on corridor-level demand forecasts, improving visibility into both peak load requirements and total energy demand.
• Piloting innovative load management mechanisms: Implementing time-of-day tariffs, smart charging, and potentially vehicle-to-grid (V2G) programs can help shift demand away from peak periods and reduce system costs.
• Exploring renewable-integrated charging solutions: Co-locating charging infrastructure with on-site solar and battery storage, or leveraging power purchase agreements (PPAs), can lower effective charging costs, reduce pressure on the distribution system, and contribute to system-level emissions reductions. RMI’s publication Powering India’s Electric Trucks with Clean and Affordable Electricity explores this solution in greater detail.

Ultimately, strong coordination between DISCOMs and CPOs will be critical to unlocking viable business models for both. Done right, it can power a reliable, affordable, and clean highway truck charging network at scale.

India’s high-traffic freight corridors offer a practical starting point for scaling electric trucking. With targeted corridor selection, optimization of vehicle economics, strategic charging infrastructure planning, and early coordination with DISCOMs, these routes can become commercially viable models for clean freight movement across the country.