JUNA's Electric Trucks Cross 100, Still Cost Double Diesel

JUNA, the electric-truck venture Scania and sennder created two years ago, passed 100 vehicles on European roads and logged 3.9 million kilometers without a tailpipe emission, the companies said Sept. 26.

The fleet now stands at about 110 electric semis operating across four countries: Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands. JUNA plans to add roughly 40 more trucks by the end of 2026, taking the total to around 150.

Where JUNA's 110 trucks are running

Gustaf Sundell, executive vice president and head of ventures at Scania Group, said reaching 100 trucks across four markets "shows that this proof point is real and gives us a strong foundation for continued growth." David Nothacker, co-founder and chief executive of sennder, said the venture "helps integrate electric trucks into everyday logistics at scale." Nestlé and Beiersdorf are among the shippers JUNA names as customers, using the fleet for international transport lanes and daily regional shuttle runs out of Hamburg.

The Scania R45's numbers

Scania R45 spec	Value
Motor output	450 kW (605 hp)
Battery	624 kWh
Range	Up to 350 km
Payload	Up to 40 tonnes
DC fast charge	80% in about 1 hour at 375 kW

A three-motor version of the truck trades range for capacity, carrying up to 64 tonnes on a six-speed transmission, according to Electrek's reporting on the fleet milestone. JUNA runs the trucks on a pay-per-use model. Matteo Oberto, the venture's managing director and chief executive, said the business combines "route analysis, technical expertise and flexible commercial model," so carriers do not have to buy the truck or its charging hardware outright.

What still costs more than diesel

That financing structure exists because the hardware alone does not pencil out for most of the industry yet. An electric truck costs two to three times what a comparable diesel one does, according to Electrek, in a market where roughly 70 percent of European trucking companies run fleets of fewer than 10 vehicles and cannot easily absorb that gap themselves. JUNA's 40-tonne payload rating also lands below the capacity Tesla is selling US fleets on its own electric Semi, a reminder that the two programs are not solving quite the same freight problem.

Heavy transport is proving out battery power on rail before road in some markets, too. BHP's battery-electric locomotives are already cutting diesel use on Australian ore trains, a comparison point for how much of the savings from electrifying freight shows up immediately versus over a vehicle's full duty cycle.

Neither Scania nor sennder said what share of JUNA's growth depends on shippers absorbing the price premium themselves, rather than on the pay-per-use model continuing to spread that cost over time.

What the mileage total does and does not prove

JUNA and Scania describe the 3.9 million kilometers as roughly 100 trips around the equator, a framing meant to make the distance sound conclusive. What it actually demonstrates is narrower: that a 624 kWh battery and a 375 kW charger can keep a 40-tonne truck running daily international and regional routes for two straight years without a breakdown severe enough to halt the program. That is a real engineering result. It says nothing about whether the trucks earn their keep once JUNA's pay-per-use pricing steps aside and a carrier has to cover the full purchase premium itself.

The next test of that is whether JUNA hits its own year-end target of 150 trucks, and whether carriers renewing into a second year of the contract are willing to keep paying once any introductory terms expire.