“In the end, the customers are interested in cents per kilometer,” says logistics specialist Rainer Schmitt. Electric trucks are still much more expensive today than combustion engines. “That’s the bitter truth. We need willing entrepreneurs on both sides who can think outside the box,” says the head of a family business with around 100 trucks. One of them is electric.
Electric trucks on German autobahns are an absolute rarity. Technology is advancing, but the sales figures are marginal: At the commercial vehicle manufacturer Daimler Truck, for example, only 914 of the around 520,000 trucks and buses sold in 2022 were emission-free.
But the ramp-up is foreseeable: by 2030, 75 percent of the heavy commercial vehicles sold could no longer be combustion engines – around 58 percent would be battery-operated and 17 percent hydrogen. This was the result of an analysis commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, which is based on surveys of manufacturers.
“There has to be a rethinking in the head”
Schmitt, whose company is located just south of Karlsruhe, is primarily active in Baden-Württemberg. “We can cover the tours in the region well with the electric truck,” he says. The fact that he has only driven one e-truck so far is mainly due to the fact that e-trucks are much more expensive than combustion engines. “There has to be a rethinking in the mind,” says Schmitt. You dive into a technology that initially has many disadvantages. The range, the charging infrastructure, the price.
“Today we are still in the pilot phase,” says Frank Huster, General Manager of the Federal Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics. The companies tested many offers. Operational processes would have to be adapted, processes optimized and synchronized with the logistical requirements of the customers.
According to Huster, it makes sense to start with fleets that have a smaller radius. E-mobility cannot yet be used in heavy goods traffic. Politicians must create framework conditions for the transition to succeed. You have to push ahead with the energy transition and create incentives for a charging infrastructure – not only in the public but also in the private sector. “This is a very important Achilles’ heel.”
Deficits in the charging infrastructure
Even in the passenger car sector, the expansion of public charging points is lagging behind the ramp-up of e-cars. For e-trucks there is hardly any public charging infrastructure, says Felix Steck, head of planning at the National Charging Infrastructure Control Center. The aim is to start bidding for a basic network of e-truck charging stations in the second half of 2023. It is not yet certain how many charging points it will include and when it will be completed. “The requirements result from the vehicle ramp-up of the manufacturers. We are in regular contact about this.”
In principle, two types of charging are possible for battery-electric trucks, explains Steck: either charging overnight or during longer standstills – here the high-performance charging stations, which cover outputs of up to 350 kilowatts and which are known from the passenger car sector, are sufficient. “But for intermediate charging during breaks in driving, shorter charging times are required. We’re then talking about outputs of 700 to 800 kilowatts in the near future.” For this purpose, new charging stations including a new type of plug are currently being developed, which are also suitable for charging in the megawatt range during the 45-minute driving break. “By 2025 you can expect them to be on the streets.”
But: With the higher charging capacities, high-voltage connections are needed at a number of motorway rest areas, explains the technical director of the network operator NetzeBW, Martin Konermann. “If things go well, I need seven years to realize something like this. Five years of planning and approval, two years of construction. In individual cases, such a rest area expansion will certainly take up to ten years in total.” It is therefore important to be involved in the planning at an early stage.
His appeal: “Let’s do it right right away.” Roughly estimated at eight billion euros, every motorway rest area in Germany could be supplied with high voltage. Then any charging capacity could be made available for both trucks and cars. Then the battery will limit the charging power – not the charging station.
Lack of space for trucks
Michael Bucher, manager for charging infrastructure at the electricity group and one of the largest German charging station operators EnBW, raises another problem. “Even today, tens of thousands of parking spaces for trucks are missing on the freeways. And now we’re coming and saying: We still need space for charging stations. That’s the biggest challenge and can only be solved with political support.” However, it is still completely unclear today who will take care of the additional space. It is therefore also important to have offers near the motorway, for example.
In a next step, logistician Schmitt will receive the long-distance electric truck from Daimler Truck for testing, he says. The “eActros LongHaul” should be ready for series production in 2024 and have a range of around 500 kilometers. He probably wanted to use it to drive the route between Gaggenau (Rastatt district) and Kassel. The route should be manageable with one battery charge. “If the customer then has the appropriate charging infrastructure at the unloading location or there are enough charging points nearby, it can work.” But if the route is longer and somewhere along the way a stop for the store has to be planned, then it becomes difficult. There’s still a long way to go.
