Why Electric Trucks Are Cheaper Than Diesel—Casper Norden (DECADE Energy)

Electric trucks are fundamentally superior to diesel—simpler design, zero emissions, lower maintenance, cheaper fuel—yet Europe's transition lags while China hit 50% electric truck sales by the end of 2024. The bottleneck isn't the vehicles; it's the power infrastructure needed to charge commercial fleets at scale.

Casper Norden, co-founder of DECADE Energy, explains how his company solves the chicken-and-egg problem holding back fleet electrification. DECADE designs, deploys, and operates power infrastructure in logistics depots—the home base where trucks load, unload, and idle overnight. By upgrading grid connections now and coupling them with battery storage that generates revenue through grid services, DECADE enables depot owners to prepare for full electrification without waiting for perfect visibility on fleet adoption timelines. The model unlocks private infrastructure capital to finance the energy transition while making depots competitive in a market where access to power is becoming a scarce, strategic asset.

**Key discussion points:**

⚡ Why depot charging beats highway charging—80% of fleet electricity consumption will happen where trucks are parked overnight, not on the road

🔋 How battery storage bridges the gap—overcapacity on upgraded grid connections creates revenue through balancing services and arbitrage before trucks arrive

🇨🇳 What Europe can learn from China—once electric trucks hit cost parity with diesel on total cost of ownership, adoption accelerates from 15% to 50% in a single year

🏭 The infrastructure financing challenge—Europe's reluctance to back physical manufacturing has left the continent vulnerable as Chinese OEMs prepare European production facilities

🔌 Why grid access is the new competitive moat—securing power connections today creates a multi-year advantage in logistics areas where substations won't expand for years

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