The commercial vehicle industry is at the cusp of a major transformation that will change the dynamics of the supply chain and logistics industry. Frost & Sullivan has examined the top 10 CV trends that will have the highest impact on the commercial vehicle market in the upcoming years.

The CASE (connected, autonomous, safe, and electric) strategy will continue to hold center stage, but within that overall strategy, Frost & Sullivan has highlighted key trends that will play out by 2023 with real-life use case examples. Even with the short-term energy crisis on global markets, the push towards zero-emission vehicles will continue to be paramount across all CV OEMs to achieve their long-term carbon emission goals.

2023 could see key electric vehicle launches and large customers executing orders to make their fleet emission-free. To support the large addition of EVs on the ground, the investment and setup of charging infrastructure will grow, and Frost & Sullivan expects the spree of mergers and acquisitions in this industry to continue throughout 2023 to expand the charging infrastructure and build on core capabilities quickly. Within the EV truck sector, batteries will evolve rapidly with newer energy-efficient and cost-effective chemistries, gaining acceptance and driving a major shift toward LFP chemistry starting in 2023. To effectively reduce the EV complexities impacting a fleet owner and ease the transition, electric-truck-as-a-service will be the business model that assuages the initial acquisition cost of EVs and smoothens the transition to ZEVs.

On a parallel and a faster-evolving lane are autonomous trucks. The technology to put driverless trucks on the road is rapidly advancing, and amidst the dust of funding closures and OEM pullbacks, key autonomous players are making deeper inroads toward making a viable driverless product. Continuous trials and successful customer pilots provide a positive outlook on long-haul and middle-mile autonomous trucking. 2023 will be optimistic for a full-fledged commercial launch, as Frost & Sullivan foresees key inroads on customer pilots and industry firsts within the L4 autonomous CV segment.

In addition to these major trends, the emergence of fuel cell commercial vehicles, EV-centric fleet management solutions, adoption of electric trailers, digital broking solutions, and insurance-as-a-service offerings are present in the report and examined in detail in other Frost & Sullivan studies.

Author: Saideep Sudhakar