Sustainability transition in forestry transport: exploring business model challenges in a Swedish demonstration project

Battery electric vehicles are recognized as a crucial pathway toward climate-neutral heavy transport. Yet their feasibility in forestry logistics remains underexplored, and existing research addresses it largely in technical and techno-economic terms. This paper presents initial findings from a system demonstration project aiming for 50% of new forestry trucks in Sweden to be electrified by 2030, engaging incumbent and emerging actors in co-developing a business ecosystem. Central to the long-term success of this transition is the evolution of viable business models for each participating actor. Drawing on business model innovation and transition management, we develop an integrative framework that locates each challenge both in an element of the business model – value proposition, value creation and delivery, or value capture – and in the level at which actors address it: operational, tactical, or strategic. Through 17 semi-structured interviews and a workshop with key stakeholders, we identify and analyze five categories of challenges: technical, economic, changes in roles and collaboration, logistics, and internal organizational. Our analysis reveals that challenges concentrate at the operational level, while the value proposition is only sparsely addressed. Furthermore, while the project has a collective vision, few organizations have a corresponding strategy. The paper contributes an analytical framework that distinguishes which parts of the business model come under pressure during a transition, and at what level. It also provides rare empirical data from the forestry transport context. It shows that collaborative project-level commitment does not by itself produce viable business models for the actors within it.