Energy transition: what does the future hold for road transport?

Sébastien Dortignac: Europe's goal is to be carbon neutral by 2050, which signals the end of fossil fuels. But unlike light vehicles, nothing has yet been decided for heavy goods vehicles. The next GHG emission reduction targets are 45% by 2030, 90% by 2040, and 100% by 2050. 

At STEF, we are committed to a plan to reduce our carbon footprint through our Moving Green climate initiative, which runs until 2030. 
The challenge is to get all the countries in the Group on board with decarbonization in order to achieve the European targets.

In 2024, nearly 17% of our tractors and 34% of our tractor units will use alternative fuels to diesel, such as B100 or CNG.

Sébastien Dortignac: Currently, this biofuel is the energy source that decarbonizes transport the most with the least impact on our operations.
It is a liquid plant-based energy source that is compatible with diesel engines, but with slightly lower fuel efficiency. And it can be stored in fuel tanks, whether our own or those of our suppliers.

Sébastien Dortignac: With targets based on reducing CO2 emissions from trucks, the European Union is clearly favoring electric vehicles. But tires still produce polluting emissions, as do brakes and all consumables. So engines must become zero-emission.

Manufacturers are announcing that by 2040, electric tractors will have the same range and charging time as diesel tractors. But this will require 4 to 8 times more charging power. Batteries will therefore become larger and more powerful.

Sébastien Dortignac: Despite the strong trend toward electrification, decarbonization will necessarily involve a combination of technologies within fleets. If we look ahead 20 years, we can imagine that our fleet will consist of both electric vehicles and vehicles powered by hydrogen and synthetic fuels (HVO, B100).

But these technologies are not yet widely available. We are currently studying use cases. And to study them, the vehicles must first be delivered and operated for one or two years. Our first electric vehicles arrived in January 2024, and 10 more will arrive by December 2025. We will observe their use and, in early 2027, we will be able to analyze the use cases and see what has worked and what needs to be improved.

Today, we prefer to move forward in small steps, even if it means using multiple technologies, as this requires a lot of anticipation and adaptation on the operational side. We try to have as little impact as possible on our business, as decarbonization should not come at the expense of optimizing our operations.
 

Sébastien Dortignac: If we were to switch our fleet to hydrogen, it would require massive investment because the vehicles are more expensive to buy and the price of energy is also high.
There is a real issue with the rollout of the refueling network. This means that STEF would have to equip itself accordingly to enable the refueling of vehicles. So it has an impact on both the vehicle and real estate sides of the business. And we can't measure that impact at this stage.
We have set up a working group to try to model what the arrival of electric vehicles could mean for us.

We know that the investment will be very significant, but it is too early to quantify it precisely.

Sébastien Dortignac: Let's take electric vehicles as an example. The constraints mean that operations will have to be rethought in terms of real estate.

With diesel, there was no question because we have fuel stations everywhere. With the electrification of our vehicles, we have to carry out a preliminary study to check the size of the electrical installations at our sites so as not to disrupt the cooling systems at our platforms.

Adding power may require heavy investment. Today, when we receive an electric truck, we also have to coordinate the arrival of the charging station with that of the vehicle. And that adds an extra layer of complexity.

There are still many unknowns, but we can see that the impacts are significant, and we are in the process of measuring them.

Sébastien Dortignac: Not yet, but it should have an impact on our business as long as vehicle autonomy does not improve.

In terms of maintenance workshops, we will need to upgrade our teams' skills. With the transition to electric vehicles, our workshops will need to be brought up to standard and our teams trained to repair and maintain our vehicles.

As for hydrogen, the vehicles available today are prototypes at best. And there are virtually no repair shops and very few refueling stations. It's a market that is not yet mature.

Sébastien Dortignac: Yes, for the well-being of everyone and the planet... As citizens, we have a duty to commit to the energy transition. The real issue is how to reconcile decarbonization and the economy in order to promote acceptance by all.

The energy transition to all-electric (or hydrogen) will generate costs that road freight transport companies will not be able to bear alone.

There is now a significant energy mix (B100, HVO, CNG, electric hydrogen, etc.), which is more or less mature, but it is important not to pit them against each other. All these energies have their limitations, but they already meet certain needs.

These are transitional energies that will enable us to decarbonize today and move towards the electrification demanded by Europe over the next 20 years.