Drive to Zero Newsletter – October 2025

Major Announcement Coming!

Drive to Zero and partners will soon make a major announcement about new countries that play a significant role in the global freight sector joining the Global Memorandum of Understanding on Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles. This critical agreement aligns 40 countries (soon to be at least 42 countries!) around a goal to reach 100% new zero-emission truck and bus sales by 2040 and at least 30% new zero-emission sales by 2030. These countries represent major global players politically, economically, and culturally.

Our big announcement is coming at COP30 (follow us today)!

Cut Risk, Cut Costs

Recently, I was a featured expert at the 2025 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. The event underscored a powerful truth: logistics is not just about moving goods — it’s about moving economies. And if economies are the engines of growth, then green freight corridors are the highways of opportunity — where trade flows, energy connects, and development accelerates. Now is the time to stand up ZE-MHDV policy and invest strategically in logistic systems in emerging markets. By addressing foundational barriers like the residual value of  zero-emission trucks and buses, we can unlock scalable, bankable solutions that accelerate the transition to clean transport, drive economic growth and deliver healthier communities.

We now have a critical tool to significantly cut residual value risk. Drive to Zero and the Green Finance Institute, with support from the Climate Group and the European Clean Trucking Alliance, have unveiled Cut Electrification Risk & Costs: The Residual Value Guarantee Blueprint, which offers:

  • Clear evidence on how Residual Value Guarantee programmes can unleash capital and it  to support zero-emission truck and bus adoption at scale

  • A comprehensive list of key questions to answer in setting up an RVG programme

  • A step-by-step guide for governments, lenders, and others to create effective RVG programmes

Effective RVG programmes can reduce leasing costs for fleet operators by 11% per month. For a heavy-duty truck in the United Kingdom, this would add up to £6,000 ($8,189) per year in savings. Read more here.

CALSTART’s Drive to Zero and the Green Finance Institute stand ready to help grow your RVG programme. We have set up an RVG accelerator programme to help guarantee managers set up these programmes locally. We can support you with proprietary tools for component-based pricing and guarantee modelling, as well as years of experience in financial structure setup and incentive scheme design and management. Want to learn more? Contact CALSTART’s Ricardo García Coyne (rgarciacoyne@calstart.org) and the Green Finance Institutes’s Tom Parke (Tom.Parke@gfi.green).

Nearly 1 in 4 new trucks, buses, and vans in California are zero-emission. In the Netherlands and in the first half of 2025, 78% of new vans and 76% of new medium trucks were battery electric. China’s ZE-MHDV market also saw incredible growth in the first half of 2025 “capturing almost 22% of the market in the first half of 2025, up from 8.6% in the same period of 2024.” Notably, electric medium and heavy trucks now outsell their fuel cell counterparts by nearly 100-to-1 globally, demonstrating the market is strongly moving in the direction of battery electric versus fuel cell trucks. What do these and other regions seeing strong uptake in zero-emission trucks have in common? Strong policies, coordinated infrastructure strategies, and increasingly diverse finance programs are making zero-emission freight more accessible and affordable worldwide.

— Stephanie Kodish, Global Director, CALSTART/Drive to Zero


Special Features

COP30 in Belém, Brazil

Drive to Zero will keep you up to date on our COP30 activities in the coming weeks. Belém will be the perfect backdrop for a major infrastructure announcement. Keep watching here for the unveiling of a new coalition and effort to decarbonize Brazil’s freight sector.


Resources

Poland-Germany Zero Emission Road Freight Corridor

ICYMI—This month our community learned more about the Poland-Germany Zero-Emission Road Freight Corridor, which is led by Smart Freight Centre (SFC), PragmaCharge and The Polish New Mobility Association (PSNM). The project focuses on the A2 motorway (Warsaw–Poznań–Łódź) extending to Berlin, and the A4 motorway (Krakow–Katowice–Wroclaw to the German border). Together, they represent nearly 1,000 km of major freight corridors.

Check out the virtual action accelerator event, which demonstrated how the Global Green Road Corridors  initiative is transforming the future of freight and transport by decarbonizing the key corridors that move people and the world’s goods from ports to hubs to cities each day. Learn more about the GGRC initiative here.


Welcome our amazing new Global MOU Endorser!

Dhemax


Transvolt Mobility is Accelerating the Drive to Zero

Global MOU endorser Transvolt Mobility announced this month it has issued a Sustainable Green Bond that will be used to deploy more than 300 plus zero-emission heavy commercial EVs for public and freight transportation. Read more here.


Top Headlines

Events/Reports

Fleet Deployments

Manufacturers and Models: Trucks and Buses

Government Policies

Financial Incentives

Fuels and Infrastructure

Batteries and Technology