Tuesday, July 14th, 2026
On 8 June 2026, EU transport ministers endorsed the first two roadmaps developed under the Clean Transport Corridor Initiative (CTCI), marking an important step towards the large-scale deployment of zero-emission heavy-duty road transport across Europe.
The roadmaps, covering the Scandinavian-Mediterranean and North Sea-Baltic TEN-T corridors, aim to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure for zero-emission trucks and support the transition towards cleaner freight transport. Developed under the European Automotive Industrial Action Plan, the initiative reflects growing recognition that coordinated action is needed to enable the decarbonisation of long-distance road freight while maintaining Europe’s competitiveness.
With the number of zero-emission trucks in Europe expected to increase significantly by 2030, reliable charging infrastructure, access to renewable energy and coordinated corridor planning will become essential to support uninterrupted freight operations across borders.
The Clean Transport Corridor Initiative: from planning to implementation
The Clean Transport Corridor Initiative was launched by the European Commission in 2025 to identify infrastructure gaps, investment priorities and coordinated actions needed to support zero-emission truck operations along Europe’s key freight corridors.
The endorsement of the first two roadmaps signals a shift from strategic planning towards practical implementation. The roadmaps identify infrastructure gaps, priority investments and governance mechanisms required to accelerate the rollout of charging infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles while creating greater certainty for investors and transport operators.
The initiative also introduces a structured approach to cross-border coordination, recognising that freight transport networks operate across national boundaries and require interoperable infrastructure, aligned planning and shared implementation efforts.
The Commission has indicated its intention to extend the initiative to all TEN-T corridors during 2026, making these first roadmaps an important reference for future corridor development across Europe.
While charging infrastructure remains a fundamental prerequisite for the transition to zero-emission road freight, the roadmaps acknowledge that deployment depends on a broader set of factors.
One of the strongest messages emerging from the roadmaps is the importance of aligning infrastructure deployment with actual freight demand and logistics operations. Future charging investments must be guided by traffic forecasts, expected freight flows and operational requirements to ensure that infrastructure is deployed where it creates the greatest value for transport operators and logistics service providers.
The roadmaps also place significant emphasis on transparency and data sharing. Measures include improved monitoring of charging infrastructure deployment, regular data exchange between Member States, harmonised reporting and better visibility of future infrastructure plans. These actions are intended to support evidence-based investment decisions and improve coordination across borders.
For ALICE, this reflects an important principle: successful decarbonisation requires infrastructure planning to be integrated with logistics demand, operational realities and supply chain needs.
The roadmaps recognise that one of the most significant barriers to large-scale deployment is access to electricity.
Several proposed actions focus on improving transparency regarding available grid capacity, supporting anticipatory grid investments, accelerating connection procedures and enabling greater flexibility through energy storage and smart charging solutions.
The availability of grid capacity, timely grid connections and renewable electricity will directly influence the pace at which charging infrastructure can be deployed. For freight operators, energy availability is not simply a technical consideration but a business requirement that affects route planning, operational reliability and service performance.
The emphasis placed on energy planning demonstrates that the transition to zero-emission freight transport requires closer coordination between transport, energy and infrastructure policies.
The roadmaps also recognise that technical readiness alone will not guarantee market uptake.
While battery-electric trucks are increasingly proving their capabilities in real-world operations, large-scale deployment ultimately depends on creating viable business cases for transport operators and shippers. Total cost of ownership, infrastructure availability, vehicle utilisation and operational efficiency remain critical factors influencing investment decisions.
This aligns closely with recommendations developed by ALICE in the context of the Fit for 55 policy framework. Accelerating the transition requires not only vehicles and charging infrastructure, but also business models and operational solutions that allow companies to remain competitive while reducing emissions.
Achieving Europe’s decarbonisation objectives will therefore require coordinated action across vehicle manufacturers, energy providers, infrastructure operators, logistics companies, shippers and public authorities.
Many of the challenges addressed by the Clean Transport Corridor Initiative are already being explored through European research and innovation activities involving ALICE and its members.
Projects such as ZEFES, FLEXMCS and MACBETH are looking into advanced solutions to integrate renewable energy sources and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to reduce grid dependency, while also developing tools to stramline the planning and deployment of future high-power charging hubs. aThe upcoming large-scale demonstrations are generating practical evidence on the deployment of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles on long-haul routes, also integrating charging planning in real operational conditions. These initiatives are helping stakeholders better understand vehicle performance, charging strategies, operational requirements and business implications for freight transport operators.
At the same time, activities supported through the 2ZERO Partnership are bringing together vehicle manufacturers, logistics providers, infrastructure operators and energy stakeholders to develop integrated solutions that combine vehicles, charging infrastructure, energy systems and digital tools.
The experience generated through these projects provides valuable input for the next phase of corridor deployment, helping ensure that investments are informed by operational realities and lessons learned from real-world demonstrations.
Many of the conditions the CTCI roadmaps describe are also being decided in another process running in parallel. The European Commission is reviewing the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), with a public consultation open until 3 August 2026 and a new legislative proposal expected before the end of the year. The review is aiming at understanding whether charging targets along the TEN-T network match real freight demand, and whether the grid can deliver the connections by the deadlines set.
ALICE has been working to bring its members’ evidence directly into this review. A first expert session in April 2026 gathered a closed group from the truck charging ecosystem to examine AFIR implementation and grid readiness for heavy-duty charging, and produced ALICE’s formal response to the Commission’s Call for Evidence. To turn this first step into a longer process aiming at bringing concrete evidence to the Commission , ALICE is holding a second expert workshop on 2 July 2026, “From evidence to policy: AFIR targets and grid readiness for zero- emission truck charging”. The session brings grid operators, charge point operators, e-mobility service providers and logistics operators around the same table, with fleet projections to 2030 and 2035 and a spatio-temporal model of charging demand on the TEN-T network presented by ICCT to ground the discussion in numbers. It is organised around the three areas under review: charging targets and megawatt charging, price transparency and the user experience, and technical standards, data access and depot charging. Because the output is a formal submission rather than a discussion, members taking an active part are asked to bring written evidence in advance.
The workshop also launches an ALICE Infrastructure Task Force on AFIR, a group that will carry the evidence forward beyond the consultation. Its first job is to consolidate the members’ input into ALICE’s response before the 3 August deadline. Beyond that, the Task Force gives the sector a way to stay involved as the legislative proposal takes shape later in 2026 and to keep the AFIR review aligned with the corridor roadmaps emerging from the CTCI, so that what the regulation requires and what the corridors actually deliver are pulling in the same direction.
The endorsement of the first CTCI roadmaps represents an important milestone in Europe’s transition towards zero-emission freight transport.
The next challenge will be implementation. Delivering successful zero-emission freight corridors will require coordinated investments, stronger alignment between infrastructure and freight demand, greater energy system readiness and continued collaboration across the logistics ecosystem.
For ALICE, the initiative confirms the importance of an integrated approach that combines infrastructure, energy, vehicles, digitalisation and logistics operations. Only through this ecosystem perspective can Europe accelerate the deployment of zero-emission freight transport while strengthening competitiveness, resilience and sustainability.