The electrification of forestry transport is no longer an unattainable dream. Interest in the subject is growing across Europe, as the European Union's climate targets, industrial competitiveness and the urgent need to cut emissions from fossil resources push the sector towards cleaner logistics.
Not long ago, the idea of using electric harvesters, forwarders and timber lorries might have seemed impossible. Yet Niko Hannula, quality manager at Stora Enso's Forest Finland business, points out that what was once merely a vision could become an everyday reality in the 2030s.
“Today, forestry machinery, timber lorries and the transport of roundwood to mills still run mainly on fossil fuel. The industry wants to change that,” Hannula wrote in August on the forest.fi blog.
Niko Hannula highlights the importance of cooperation on major European initiatives, such as the seven-year EU-funded project “Accelerating Climate efforts and Investments” (ACE), which aims to remove the barriers to electrifying heavy transport in Finland.
The carbon cost of European timber haulage
Logistics in the forestry sector is a significant source of emissions. Every year some 80 million tonnes of primary materials and wood products are transported in Finland, most of it by road.
The situation is similar in other forest-rich countries – Sweden, Germany and Austria – where wood and paper products are still carried mainly by diesel-powered lorries rather than by rail, biogas-powered or electrified forestry transport.
According to a report by AFRY Management Consulting, commissioned by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, total emissions from forestry sector logistics reached 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022. At the same time, Statistics Finland reports that domestic transport emissions as a whole reached approximately 9.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023.
Electrification cuts emissions at mills
Studies show that electricity is well suited to transport within mill sites, as well as to short, standardised and regular routes. Long-distance haulage of bulky timber, on the other hand, must still wait for charging infrastructure to develop and for more practical experience, particularly in winter conditions.
According to a report published by the Finnish forestry research and development company Metsäteho Oy, electrifying 20% of timber transport and 25% of wood chip transport could cut emissions by 43,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in operation, or by 56,000 tonnes when measured from production through to transport.
“For Finnish forestry logistics this would be a significant step towards carbon neutrality,” says Metsäteho senior researcher Pirjo Venelainena (Pirjo Venäläinen), stressing that the biggest obstacle to a rapid transition is the charging infrastructure, which is still at the development stage. “In Finland, the construction of charging stations is only in its infancy, even close to the main road network. Infrastructure is the most visible barrier to electrification,” Venelainena notes, adding that in future the production sites of forestry companies could serve as charging hubs. This trend is illustrated by the fact that the UPM group has already built an electric charging station for heavy vehicles at the Alholma sawmill site in Pietarsaari. Meanwhile, Metsä Group has implemented a similar solution at its Kemi mill in Lapland, northern Finland. Plugit, a Finnish company specialising in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, is taking part in the ACE project, which promotes the roll-out of climate solutions.
Testing the capabilities of electrified heavy transport in Arctic conditions
Finland's forest industry transition to green energy is being accelerated by the ACE project, funded by the European LIFE programme, which aims to support the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2035, particularly in agriculture, heavy transport and industrial energy use.
Under the EU Climate Law (2020), Europe must cut net emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Venelainena stresses that Europe's emission reduction commitments will increase overall for heavy transport, and that this trend will inevitably affect forest industry logistics too. A rapid switch to electric heavy vehicles nevertheless remains unlikely, partly because cost is still a significant barrier. An electric tractor unit currently costs roughly twice as much as an equivalent diesel model. According to Metsäteho calculations, hauling timber by electric transport is still 7-11% more expensive, and electric wood chip haulage 6-8% more expensive, compared with diesel-powered vehicles.
The situation could change rapidly
“If electricity prices were 15 euro cents or less, Metsäteho calculations indicate that the total costs of electric timber transport combinations would be lower than those of diesel combinations,” says Pirjo Venelainena.
Niko Hannula notes that investment in heavy electric transport in Finland has so far been closely tied to state subsidies. While subsidies were available for purchasing electric vehicles, companies kept investing in electric lorries. When the subsidies ended at the close of 2024, several companies announced that they were deferring decisions, underlining the importance of continuous financial support in accelerating the switch to electric transport.
“If we in Finland genuinely want to accelerate the switch to electric transport, operating it has to become more profitable than it is today. That means, for example, greater public and private investment in charging infrastructure, so that companies can invest in electric vehicles,” Hannula stresses.
Trial projects – the decisive stage in the transition to a green economy
Pilot projects are an essential step in the shift to low-emission forestry logistics. Without practical trials there is no way of knowing how electric machinery performs in a real working environment, particularly in the Nordic countries, where low temperatures, hilly terrain and remote forest roads set the limits of what the machinery can do. If next-generation zero-emission vehicles can prove their efficiency in such conditions, the competitiveness of the forestry sectors in Finland and the other Nordic countries could increase considerably.
Reliable electric machines would reduce the forestry sector's carbon footprint, help companies meet customers' growing sustainability requirements and prepare the industry for stricter EU rules.
In the second half of next year, a significant step towards that goal will be taken in Kemi, a coastal town in Finnish Lapland. Metsä Group and the logistics company Pohjaset Ltd. will launch Finland's first electric timber transport pilot as part of the ACE project. Its aim is to test the performance of electric heavy goods vehicles in real timber haulage. Electric lorries with trailers will run between the Laivakangas terminal in Tornio and the Maksniemi terminal in Simo and Metsä Group's Kemi bioproduct mill – a route that offers the greatest scope for electrification.
Kari Poikela, business development director at Pohjaset Oy, stresses the importance of the test: “We want to test electrified timber lorry combinations in Arctic conditions. If they work in Lapland's cold climate and demanding environment, they should work anywhere.”
The pilot will gather data on energy consumption, driving range, charging cycles and equipment utilisation. This is important information that will reveal not only how well electrification works, but also the limits of what it can do. The electric tractor unit will enter service in the second half of next year.
Electrification at production sites is gaining ground
Electrification is advancing fastest at mills, where short, predictable routes make charging infrastructure easier to install. In November, Stora Enso tested an electric loader at its Anjalankoski mill as part of the ACE LIFE project. The results exceeded expectations, showing lower emissions and reduced operating costs compared with diesel loaders.
“The charging station for the electric loaders was connected to the mill's grid without major investment. Charging within the mill's internal operations is in fact far simpler than on public roads,” explains Niko Hannula, who led the pilot at the Anjalankoski mill.
The loader was used to the full, the battery was run down completely, charging was closely monitored and operators assessed its performance under real working conditions. The results were unambiguous – charging caused no problems, the battery performed as promised, and the electric motor delivered sufficient torque. “The only limitation was high-energy attachments, such as large brushes, which could not be operated with the electric loader,” Hannula notes.
Financially, the trial was a great success.
“Fuel and maintenance costs are considerably lower than for the diesel version. Over the life of the contract, an electric machine can even be more cost-effective than a diesel one,” Hannula judges.
“The UPM group has also begun electrifying heavy transport, starting with the ‘simplest' application – internal transport within the mill complex,” explains Janne Ūtera of UPM. At present, electric vehicles carry by-products from the Alholma sawmill in Pietarsaari to the pulp mill. For this project UPM installed charging infrastructure, co-financed by the ACE project, while the terminal operator Oy Adolf Lahti Yxpila Ab purchased the vehicles.
According to Ūtera, electrification will eventually be extended to roundwood delivery transport as well. Initially the focus is on regular, predictable routes, such as by-product haulage between mills or between terminals and mills. “Electrifying the transport of roundwood from forest landings to terminals or mills will remain problematic until high-power charging networks become more widespread and current electric vehicles are better suited to driving on rough forest roads,” Janne Ūtera adds.
Sweden is the leader
So far Sweden has been ahead of Finland in adopting electrified timber transport, largely thanks to the home-market advantage enjoyed by lorry manufacturers Scania and Volvo. These companies test new equipment on the domestic market, and the forestry sector has joined the trials with bold initiatives of its own. Sweden's charging network for heavy transport is considerably more extensive than Finland's.
The forestry group SCA and the lorry manufacturer Scania are likewise driving the electrification of timber transport in Sweden. The first electric timber lorry, which entered service back in 2022, carries logs between SCA's Gimonäs terminal in Umeå and the Obbola paper mill. A second vehicle joined the fleet in October 2024, operating directly in the forest. Unlike the Umeå lorry, the new model is fitted with a crane, standard equipment on roundwood lorries that collect logs from forest landings.
“The electric timber lorry has a greater operating radius; it travels to timber storage sites in the forest, where it loads wood for onward transport to the terminal in Östavall. We expect this to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 170 tonnes a year compared with a conventional lorry,” on SCA's website said Anton Ålinder, supply business development specialist at SCA Skog.
Sweden's innovation agency Vinnova funds pilot projects, including the flagship programme TREE (Transition to Resource Efficient Electrified forestry transport), which aims by 2030 to replace half of all new logging lorries with electric ones. Uptake nevertheless remains slow – in 2023 only 3% of new lorries sold were electric, far short of the 2030 target of 50%.
“Charging logging lorries and planning transport are two important elements of this task,” said Gunilla Ėlunda Sandstrēma, associate professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in an interview with KHE.se, pointing to the challenges of building charging infrastructure in remote areas and the need to adapt logistics.
Timber lorries with biogas engines are already running in Nordic forests
Although electrification is regarded as the long-term solution for forestry logistics, biogas has already proved itself a viable alternative fuel. In Finland, more than a dozen timber lorries run on biogas produced from forest industry by-products. Studies show that biogas-powered heavy vehicles perform well on gravel forest roads – routes that place particular demands on vehicles and lie precisely where biomass begins its journey from the forest to processing.
Finland, Sweden and Norway are becoming pioneers in integrating liquefied biogas (LBG) into the forest bioeconomy. In June 2022, the Finnish transport company Eskola Ltd. (Kuljetusliike Eskola Oy) put Europe's first heavy biogas-powered timber lorry into service in the Oulu region. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Finnish state forest enterprise Metsähallitus.
Despite the potential of electrification and biogas, the transition to zero-emission forestry transport will take time. High vehicle costs, limited charging and refuelling infrastructure, and technology that is still insufficiently developed are all holding back the adoption of zero-emission transport. Even so, experimental projects, European Union climate targets and growing corporate investment are gradually driving progress in this field.
The coming decade will be decisive in determining how quickly Finland and the Nordic forest sectors as a whole can switch to electric transport and other zero-emission transport solutions