Electrification is not a technology problem. It is a market problem.

Who to trust? · Point of view · 2 min read

The trucks exist. The chargers exist. The capital exists. Yet execution is slow. What is missing is not technology but a market that makes it easy to find, compare and contract the right partners.

A hot market that is hard to navigate

Smart Freight Week in April showed a market in motion. Many companies are expanding their services end to end. New entrants from inside and outside Europe arrive with innovative solutions. The opportunity is big, we estimate €20–25 billion in Europe, and the sense of urgency is high.

Yet the landscape is scattered and hard to see through. Matching what companies really need with service providers who can really deliver is still a challenge. Europe has the technology. What we lack is coordination.

One transition, many suppliers

Electrifying a fleet rarely means working with one supplier. Vehicles may come from one provider and charging from another, and energy, depot installation, financing and implementation can involve several more. When each element is sourced separately, complexity grows, and so does risk.

For suppliers it works the other way round. A broad ambition to electrify gives them little to plan on. Defined requirements, volumes and timelines do. The market is moving from sales built on relationships to structured procurement.

“Electrification is not a technology problem. It is a market infrastructure problem.”

Haijo Kampinga

Every opportunity needs an ecosystem

No one can do it all, and no one can do it alone. Every opportunity needs an ecosystem of partners: fleets, shippers, OEMs, charging and energy providers, financiers and cities. Europe’s green transition will be won or lost in logistics yards, depots and urban corridors, and it depends on all of them moving together.

Infrastructure determines speed

Technology alone does not speed up a transition. Infrastructure does, and that includes market infrastructure: a neutral, structured way for buyers and suppliers to engage. That means:

• Structured demand: requirements, volumes and timelines that suppliers can respond to.
• Comparable offers: responses on the same basis, with price, TCO, ESG and delivery terms side by side.
• Fair participation: multiple vendors, transparent criteria and clear data governance.
• Bundling where it helps: pooling demand across fleets, cities and regions to get better terms.

Why neutrality matters

Electrification markets need competition, choice and trust. When a single brand bundles the vehicle, the charger, the software and the financing, choice narrows and switching costs go up. Neutrality is not a marketing line. It is part of the design.