Barriers towards the adoption of battery electric trucks - an exploratory study in Uruguay

Efforts to decarbonise freight transport are being made by companies and countries, driven by costs and pollution reductions. Battery electric and fuel cell electric technologies are the most promising technologies to achieve this. This study presents a list of barriers to the adoption of battery electric trucks in Uruguay based on a Delphi panel of experts and a stakeholder survey. The main findings of the factorial analysis performed on the survey's results reveal that there are five groups of barriers: operation and technology adaptations, market and infrastructure ecosystem, battery and range limitations, demand, and life cycle costs. The most concerning barriers are the purchasing price, low national incentives, available charging infrastructure, and vehicle driving range. This study seeks to fill the existing knowledge gap in the literature in Latin America and concludes that assessing the barriers identified and aligning interested parties' actions would help to create a more efficient transition.