Nearly 16,900 trucks enter Delhi every day, and a new study shows they cause far more damage after dark than daytime traffic numbers suggest. While heavy trucks account for 23 percent of the city’s daily transport emissions, that share jumps to 61 percent during early morning and nighttime hours.
The report, Towards Cleaner Freight in Delhi, comes from the Air Pollution Action Group, IIT Delhi, and The Energy and Resources Institute. Researchers tracked truck movement using toll data, on-ground surveys, and real-world emissions testing fitted directly onto trucks.
The study found that just four entry points, Kundli, Rajokri, Badarpur, and Tikri, handle more than half of all truck traffic into Delhi. Researchers say this concentration gives policymakers a clear target for emission controls instead of citywide rules that are hard to enforce.
About 75 percent of interstate trucks operate in Delhi between 10 pm and 7 am, compared to just 18 percent of cars and passenger vehicles during those hours. That timing gap explains why truck pollution spikes overnight even though trucks make up a small share of total vehicles on the road.
The data also showed that a small number of trucks make most trips. Nearly 76 percent of recorded entries over a month came from repeat vehicles, with each truck entering Delhi about four times monthly on average.
EV Push Gathers Pace, But Freight Lags
India’s broader shift to electric vehicles is accelerating. Registrations crossed 2.3 million vehicles in 2025, with EVs taking a record 10.8 percent share of total sales. Freight transport remains one of the slowest sectors to electrify, despite being one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions.
“While we do have an option now of replacing old trucks with incentives, the instruments that are needed to identify end-of-life vehicles efficiently and target gross polluters are still the big problem that we have to address,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, speaking at the report’s launch on June 29.
India currently has around 25,000 public charging points, compared to more than 100,000 fossil fuel retail outlets. The country has 3.4 electric light-duty vehicles per public charging point, against 12.8 in Europe and 32.6 in the United States.
Financing Remains the Biggest Barrier
Lenders remain wary of EV loans because of uncertain battery life and weak resale value. IV Rao, distinguished fellow at TERI, said this residual value problem stays the central obstacle, and that better battery monitoring could help build lender confidence.
“The biggest issue remains the residual value,” Rao said.
Devendra Chawla, managing director and CEO of GreenCell Mobility, said even a 3 percent rate of bad loans can hurt profitability sharply, making banks reluctant to expand EV portfolios.
Consumer doubts are growing too. In a recent survey cited at the launch, 51 percent of EV owners said they were considering switching back to petrol vehicles, citing range anxiety, inadequate charging infrastructure, and high insurance costs.
Policy Confusion Slows Progress
Experts at a separate dialogue on EV financing, held June 25, warned that conflicting government signals are slowing adoption. “There is no clarity in policy. One ministry is promoting electric vehicles while another is promoting biofuels. We need an integrated mobility policy,” said Debajit Palit, centre head for Climate Change and Energy Transition at Chintan Research Foundation.
Researchers recommend focusing incentives on high-use vehicles like buses, commercial fleets, and freight trucks, where electrification already makes economic sense. They also call for dedicated charging corridors along major freight routes and logistics hubs built outside city centers, reducing the need for trucks to enter Delhi at all.
With India’s freight demand projected to grow fivefold over the next two decades, researchers say the choices made now around truck routes, charging networks, and fleet upgrades will determine how much pollution the next generation of trucks brings into Delhi’s air.
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