Germany’s auto industry trade group still believes diesel engines will be around in 20 years but the sector is already changing.

The trucks of the future, don’t look all that different, do they?

But Mercedes Benz’s new Urban eTruck has done away with the fossil fuel engine entirely – it’s fully-electric, designed specifically for short distances.

It could be on the road by 2020.

This, on the other hand, is one of the most efficient long-haul heavy goods vehicles on the market. It still runs on diesel.

Industry bodies say there’s little choice — battery technology is no where near advanced enough.

They believe stricter laws are the best bet for cutting carbon emissions.

"I think we are much more driven by the legislative aspects — we have our strategies of C02 reductions, we are working together with the European government — we are just working on the next level: CO2 regulations 2025 and 2030," said Joachim Damasky from German Association of the Auto Industry.

On the hardware side, at least, modernization of the sector — particularly when it comes to energy savings — hardly seems transformative: with this new model, for example, designers have made tweaks to the engine — they’ve changed the gearbox — they’ve added LED lights. But the real action — it seems — is on the software side.

This fancy graphic is promoting a product called “Rio” — an open-source platform that links every aspect of the supply chain — it’s Big Data in action.

"It is about the flow of information, that everything is well interconnected — that parcels and shipments are delivered at the time the customer needs — and the future is not limited to any single means of transport: it could be a bicycle, it could be a truck, it could be a train," said Frank Tinschert from 'Rio' Transport Data Platform.

Road transport remains one of the largest contributors to global CO2 levels. It’s making inroads, up to a point.