Geopolitical tensions, energy price volatility and growing concerns about economic security have brought competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy to the center of the European Union’s policymaking. Across energy, industry and defense, the focus is increasingly on reducing dependencies, strengthening domestic capacity and making the EU more resilient to external shocks.
Yet one essential enabler of these objectives is still too often overlooked: commercial road transport.
This becomes particularly clear when disruption hits. Energy price volatility is felt almost immediately across the sector. Higher fuel costs quickly feed into transport operations, supply chains and, ultimately, the wider economy. Costs rise, connectivity suffers and pressure builds across value chains.
This reflects a broader reality. Commercial road transport is not simply another sector of the economy. It is strategic infrastructure that keeps the real economy functioning.
Every day, it connects factories to markets, industrial hubs to supply chains, and businesses to workers and customers. It also ensures the mobility of people. Buses and coaches provide essential connectivity to jobs, education and services, particularly in regions where alternatives remain limited.
This strategic role becomes even more important as the EU accelerates decarbonization.
Decarbonizing commercial road transport is not only about meeting climate targets. It can also help reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, strengthen energy security and improve long-term competitiveness. But this will happen only if the transition is economically and operationally workable.
Commercial road transport is not simply another sector of the economy. It is strategic infrastructure that keeps the real economy functioning.
The sector is committed to the transition and investment in cleaner technologies is already underway. The challenge is no longer a lack of ambition. The challenge is making deployment work at scale.
Too often, policy still assumes that setting targets will automatically drive market transformation. The reality on the ground is more complex.
Grid access is becoming another major bottleneck. Even where operators are ready to invest, deployment is often slowed by limited capacity, long connection times, power delivery certainty and unpredictable electricity costs. The three A’s of the grid — accessibility, affordability and assurance — will be decisive for the business case of electrification.
At the same time, charging and refueling infrastructure must scale much faster. Around 70 percent of heavy-duty vehicle charging is expected to happen at depots, logistics centers and operational bases, yet policy support remains heavily focused on publicly accessible charging. Public charging is essential, but it will not be enough on its own. Public, semi-private and private infrastructure must function as an integrated system.
Investment conditions must also improve, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which represent the majority of the sector and face the greatest difficulty absorbing high upfront costs for vehicles and infrastructure. Investments could be de-risked if policymakers supported investments through grants, guarantees and blended finance. CO2-differentiated taxation and favorable tolling schemes across the EU can significantly improve the total cost of ownership of zero-emission vehicles.
The transition has a powerful built-in financing mechanism. If revenues generated by road transport, including ETS2 (a new emissions trading system) and road charging revenues, are reinvested in the sector’s decarbonization, they could unlock the scale of investment needed to accelerate change. But who will ensure that these funds are channeled back into the sector that generates them?
Policy must also reflect operational diversity. Commercial road transport is not a single use case. Long-haul freight, regional logistics, urban delivery, scheduled bus services and long-distance coach operations all face different technical and economic constraints. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. While electrification will play a central role, it cannot be the only solution. Sustainable renewable and low-carbon fuels, including renewable and synthetic fuels, will be essential for long-distance operations and vehicle segments where alternatives remain limited.
Commercial road transport should therefore no longer be viewed primarily as a sector to regulate or decarbonize in isolation. It should be recognized for what it already is: a strategic enabler of resilience, competitiveness and economic security.
A coherent EU policy framework, including technology-neutral CO2 standards for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles, must recognize road transport as a long-term market for clean fuels. This would not only accelerate decarbonization in road transport but also support aviation and maritime sectors, which are expected to rely heavily on these fuels to achieve their own climate objectives.
Looking more broadly at the EU’s industrial policy, including efforts to strengthen domestic production and reduce strategic dependencies, everything starts from efficient transport connectivity. Industrial hubs do not operate in isolation. Their performance depends on how efficiently goods and people move to, from and between them.
Stronger connectivity, integrated transport terminals, charging and refueling infrastructure, faster permitting and targeted support will be essential if industrial acceleration is to deliver in practice.
Commercial road transport should therefore no longer be viewed primarily as a sector to regulate or decarbonize in isolation. It should be recognized for what it already is: a strategic enabler of resilience, competitiveness and economic security.
That requires a greater focus on infrastructure, affordable energy, financing, clean fuels and smart regulation, which will determine whether the transition accelerates at the pace policymakers expect.
Regulation should make decarbonization easier, not harder.
Europe’s resilience will depend not only on stronger industry and cleaner energy, but also on something more fundamental: whether goods and people can continue moving efficiently, reliably and affordably across the EU.
Disclaimer
POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT
- The sponsor: IRU – International Road Transport Union, Av. de Cortenbergh 71, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
- The political advertisement is linked to ongoing EU policy discussions on transport decarbonisation, clean mobility infrastructure, energy transition and industrial competitiveness.
More information here.