CAMBRIDGE, England—The electric truck market in the United States is primed for huge growth, according to a new report from IDTechEx. The "Electric Truck Markets 2021-2041" report provides a 20-year outlook for both the medium-duty and heavy-duty sectors, with separate forecast lines for battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles.

“Having largely lagged behind China and Europe in electric commercial vehicle deployment, the transition to zero-emission vehicles in this sector now seems set to begin in earnest,” says David Wyatt, Ph.D., a technology analyst at IDTechEx. “Whilst the Biden presidency is only a week old, the step change that has occurred in the U.S. government’s attitude toward confronting climate change and reducing road transport emissions could not have been made any clearer.

“Just five days into his presidency, President Biden announced that his [administration] is planning to replace the federal government’s fleet of combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles manufactured in the U.S., creating a million clean-energy automotive jobs, in what he described as the ‘largest mobilization of public investment in procurement, infrastructure and R&D since World War II.’”

According to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the federal fleet comprises near 650,000 vehicles, with around 100,000 medium-duty and 40,000 heavy-duty trucks in its inventory.

“Whilst the strategy, funding and timelines behind the policy are yet to be expounded upon, it is clear that the new government sees vehicle electrification both as a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emission (with the co-benefit of improving air quality) and for supporting the U.S. automotive sector,” says Wyatt.

“Biden’s announcement, alongside factors such as the California Air Resources Board’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation—which last year mandated that 75 percent of new Class 4-8 rigid trucks and 55 percent of new tractor trailer sales in California must be zero-emission by 2035, and growing evidence of significant demand for commercial EVs from major U.S. corporations—should give great confidence to truck manufacturers and their supply chain that the market for EVs will be worth the resources and investment that is necessary to transition away from the combustion engine.”