Electric roads as an incentive-alignment strategy for European freight decarbonization

Electric roads as an incentive-alignment strategy for European freight decarbonization | Zenodo Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Published April 21, 2026 | Version v1 Preprint Open Electric roads as an incentive-alignment strategy for European freight decarbonization Authors/Creators Rogstadius, Jakob (Researcher) 1 Show affiliations 1. RISE Research Institutes of Sweden Description The European Union is unlikely to decarbonize road freight on time through its current policy mix. This article argues that the main barrier is misaligned incentives across freight operators, vehicle manufacturers, charging providers, grid operators and policymakers. Under current conditions, delay is often rational: battery-electric trucks remain expensive to buy, public charging is costly to use and risky to expand, grid connection queues are growing, and stronger pressure on fossil-fuel use can be politically regressive when affordable electric alternatives remain limited. The case is presented for integrating electric road systems (ERS) on dense freight corridors into the European charging infrastructure mix, as a strategy to align incentives across the transport system towards accelerated decarbonisation. The economics of ERS investments and operations favour low pricing and rapid scaling of the infrastructure. Equitable access to low-cost public charging for vehicles in motion is expected to strengthen the incentives to adopt electric trucks, through reduced vehicle pricing, operational costs, payload penalties and charging downtime. Grid connectivity challenges would be made less severe, and vehicle manufacturers would see increased demand for both new and retrofitted electric trucks. Europe should therefore treat ERS not as a niche technology, but as a potential incentive-alignment strategy within the road-freight charging mix, and use the current policy cycle, including AFIR revision, to enable corridor-scale pilots, mechanisms to facilitate ERS investments, and suitable market frameworks. Files Electric roads as an incentive-alignment strategy.pdf Files (576.5 kB) Name Size Download all Electric roads as an incentive-alignment strategy.pdf md5:4fd6d9dbbaa4f3f51b1711afcfb5a223 576.5 kB Preview Download Additional details Dates Available 2026-04-22 Preprint manuscript uploaded to Zenodo 171 Views 117 Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 171 171 Downloads Total downloads 117 117 Data volume Total data volume 82.4 MB 82.4 MB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords electric road systems dynamic charging road freight decarbonization heavy-duty vehicles battery-electric trucks charging infrastructure transport electrification energy policy transport policy incentive alignment alternative fuels infrastructure regulation freight transport Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19690099 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19690099) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19690099.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19690099 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19690099"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19690099.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19690099.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19690099 Resource type Preprint Publisher Zenodo Languages English Rights License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited. Read more Citation Export Technical metadata Created April 22, 2026 Modified April 22, 2026 Jump up About About Policies Infrastructure Principles Projects Roadmap Contact Blog Blog Support Help FAQ Developers REST API OAI-PMH Contribute GitHub Donate Funded by Powered by CERN Data Centre & InvenioRDM Status Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms of Use This site uses cookies. Find out more on how we use cookies Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies

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