Transforming Trucking in India

This report by RMI outlines the economic and environmental case for adopting zero-emissions trucks (ZETs) in India, highlighting potential reductions in oil imports, carbon emissions, and air pollution by 2050, while discussing the path to cost parity with diesel vehicles.

• The trucking sector is central to India's economy, moving 70 percent of the 4.6 billion tons of freight transported annually. However, the reliance on fossil fuel vehicles for this transport contributes to air pollution, public health issues, increased CO2 emissions, and higher transportation costs.
• Adopting zero-emissions trucks (ZETs), such as battery-electric and fuel-cell-electric models, offers significant economic and environmental benefits by 2050: avoiding 838 billion liters of diesel consumption (reducing oil expenditures by over $1.5 trillion), reducing particulate matter and nitrous oxide pollution by nearly 40 percent, and eliminating up to 3.8 cumulative gigatons of carbon emissions.
• The total cost of ownership for medium-duty ZETs is already lower than diesel trucks under a mature production scenario, and heavy-duty ZETs are expected to reach cost parity by 2027.

APA

RMI (2022). Transforming Trucking in India. https://rmi.org/resources/transforming-trucking-in-india/

Chicago

RMI. Transforming Trucking in India. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/transforming-trucking-in-india/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Transforming Trucking in India |date=7 September 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/transforming-trucking-in-india/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022transforming, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Transforming Trucking in India}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/transforming-trucking-in-india/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }