Old and polluting lorries: race to renew
The average age of Italian trucks is 19.8 years, among the highest in Europe. Diesel dominates and electric remains marginal
by Marco Morino
Heavy fleets, trucks and lorries of 3.5 tonnes and above, urgently need to accelerate the ecological transition. The numbers say so and Europe demands it. The average age of Italia's truck fleet is 19.8 years, one of the highest in Europe, according to the latest report published by Acea (Vehicles on European Roads 2026). Out of almost one million vehicles on the road, more than 700 thousand are over 10 years old. Worse are only Greece (22.9 years) and Malta (22 years), while countries such as Austria and Luxembourg are under 10 years old. On the fuel front, the picture is equally critical. Diesel continues to dominate almost absolutely: according to Acea, more than 96% of trucks in circulation in Europe are powered by diesel, and in Italia the situation is similar. Electric vehicles account for barely 0.3% of the heavy fleet. By contrast, the European Union is imposing drastic cuts in emissions from trucks (-90% by 2040), with the aim of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 through progressive electrification and the use of hydrogen.
It is clear that, despite European ambitions on ecological transition, Italy's road haulage sector is struggling to align with decarbonisation targets. Countries that are showing concrete signs of change - such as the Netherlands, Denmark or Luxembourg - remain exceptions rather than replicable models. What is clear from the report is that Italia is indeed a road freight giant, but with an outdated infrastructure base. Its dependence on old, highly polluting vehicles risks becoming a brake on international competitiveness, especially in a European context that is accelerating, albeit with difficulty, towards more sustainable forms of mobility.
A push towards fleet renewal could come from the 590 million state incentives provided by the government (Mit-Mef interministerial decree) to be spent over five years. While waiting for the implementing decree with the breakdown of resources by type of vehicle and fuel (first disbursements expected from 2027), it can already be said that the size of the funding and its time horizon allow companies to plan investments that the incentives granted so far, episodic and of modest size, had not allowed. Suffice it to say that the annual allocation for investments by haulage companies has never exceeded 25 million.
Says Riccardo Morelli, president of Anita, the Confindustria association representing road haulage and logistics companies: "The resources made available by the government offer companies the chance to accelerate the transition that is already underway. The process must be accompanied by a coherent European reference framework, which allows operators to choose the most suitable type of power supply, embracing technological plurality. At the same time,' continues Morelli, 'we are against the introduction of mandatory quotas of zero-emission vehicles in fleets'. According to Morelli, the vehicles used by road haulage companies have completely different functions from company fleets in the broader sense. "Putting these two realities together would mean ignoring the specificity of road haulage, which has completely unique economic and operational characteristics and which already today faces reduced margins, strong competition and the need for investment in order to remain competitive," Morelli adds.
Virtuous cases
