Electrification and autonomy are rewriting the rulebook for road freight. Globally, battery-electric heavy trucks are stretching range and cutting operating costs, while autonomous systems are proving their safety and productivity in controlled environments.
In Africa (and South Africa in particular) adoption won’t be uniform, but the direction of travel is clear: targeted, corridor-based deployments first, then broader scale as infrastructure and regulation mature.
For shippers, the near-term gains are about reliability, cost control and sustainability; for forwarders, like us Inter-Sped, it’s about matching the right tech to the right lane and de-risking the journey.
What’s changing globally and why it matters locally
Truck Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are now shipping long-haul Electric Vehicles (EVs) with ranges that were unthinkable a few years ago. In 2024, Volvo announced a next-gen heavy-duty e-truck platform with up to 600 km range and approximately 40-minute high-power charging, aimed squarely at inter-regional haulage. That unlocks many milk-run and hub-to-hub African use cases (especially where depot charging is possible).
The state of play in South Africa
Electric trucks are here, selectively
South Africa has already seen commercial deliveries of heavy electric truck tractors. In early 2025, Volvo Trucks SA delivered FH 6×4 electric units to Vector Logistics for food distribution with refrigerated trailers. A strong signal that cold-chain and FMCG routes with predictable daily distances are early winners.
OEMs with a footprint in SA (e.g. Scania) publicly argue that electric heavy trucks are now credible alternatives for specific duty cycles, while simultaneously investing in depot/destination charging networks (e.g. Scania’s Erinion) to boost uptime.
Local guidance mirrors this. South African e-truck integrators advise shippers to start with TCO modelling, range-matched routes, and depot power assessments. Think short-haul shuttles, city distribution and return-to-base night charging.
Autonomy: where it works today
Is South Africa “ready” for self-driving trucks? In public mixed traffic, perhaps not. Regulation, road markings, and enforcement still need work. But in controlled environments such as mines and private roads, autonomy is already proven. Global deployments of autonomous haulage systems (AHS) from Komatsu and Caterpillar have surpassed 700+ trucks and multi-billion-tonne milestones, showing mature safety and productivity in closed sites, becoming a template for SA’s mining heartlands.
South African trade press echoes this nuance: autonomy’s first beachhead is likely mining and private corridors, followed by hub-to-hub pilots on well-marked highways with remote oversight.
Africa-wide momentum and what it means for shippers
While most EV headlines in Africa feature buses and two-wheelers, they’re important demand signals: they drive charging ecosystem growth and policy attention that heavy trucks can later leverage.
For freight, this points to phased adoption:
- Phase 1: Urban/regional return-to-base EV trucking (cold chain, retail, pharma).
- Phase 2: Inter-city hub-to-hub EV with en-route high-power charging and/or battery-swap pilots where viable.
- Phase 3: Supervised autonomous operations on predictable corridors (port-DC; mine-rail terminals), initially on private/controlled roads.
Bottom line
Autonomous and electric trucks won’t replace every diesel lane in Africa overnight — but they will win the lanes where they make the most sense first: private/controlled roads, urban distribution, and predictable regional shuttles.
The case for early adoption in South Africa is already here (as Vector’s heavy EV deployment shows), and the technology curve is rising quickly, with long-range platforms, smarter autonomy, and better charging ecosystems likely on the way.
