Press Release
29.06.2023
Contact:
Franziska Bornefeld
Manager Press and Publications
franziska.bornefeld@now-gmbh.de
The National Centre for Charging Infrastructure has today published the new guide entitled “Easy e-truck Charging. A User Journey at Public Charging Stations Now and in 2030“ (“Einfach E-Lkw laden. Ein User Journey an öffentlichen Ladestationen jetzt und 2030”). The publication focuses on the public charging of battery electric trucks. The publication offers a detailed outlook on the future everyday life of e-truck drivers along the four steps of route planning, reservation, charging and “all around charging”. For each of these four steps, the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure has sketched out a target picture for the year 2030 in workshops with relevant stakeholders. The publication shows which obstacles stand in the way of this target picture in each case and outlines the steps that are necessary to overcome them.
The publication of the new guide is part of the federal government’s “Charging Infrastructure Master Plan II”, which was approved by the federal cabinet in October 2022. Federal Minister for Transport, Dr. Volker Wissing, presented the guide at the 2023 Charging Infrastructure Conference of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV – Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr). At the same time, a new thematic page on charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles has also gone online on the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure website. It provides an overview of current political and technological developments as well as outlining the activities of the Centre in this area. Under the umbrella of the federally owned NOW GmbH, the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure plans and supports activities to expand the charging infrastructure in Germany on behalf of the BMDV.
In order to achieve the federal government’s ambitious climate targets, about one third of the mileage in heavy road freight transport should be electric by 2030. Along with the new drive technologies, the work processes of drivers are also undergoing change. The focus is currently on e-trucks with batteries. Now and over the next few years, many manufacturers are bringing e-trucks suitable for long distances onto the market and to their customers. In order for the switch to e-trucks to succeed in practice, suitable charging infrastructure must be reliably available wherever it is needed. It must also meet the specific needs of the transport companies and their drivers. In addition, there is a need to expand grid capacities and grid connections in order to enable the high charging capacities up to the megawatt range that are required for charging e-trucks.
In regards to route planning, new influencing variables such as battery capacity, state of charge of the battery or charging curve and charging power must be taken into account, for example. Reservation systems for charging points are helpful, as e-trucks on long-distance routes are particularly dependent on finding reliably available charging infrastructure. There are two main charging scenarios for the public charging of e-trucks: overnight and intermediate charging. A connection with the statutory break and rest periods must also be considered. When it comes to charging, the acceptance of e-trucks by drivers depends on whether the quality of work and breaks meets their needs in their day-to-day work.
Johannes Pallasch, Spokesperson of the Management Team at the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure: “There are currently only a few charging options designed for e-trucks, but this will change in the near future. With our ‘Easy e-truck charging’ publication, we are seeking to make a valuable contribution to the rapid and targeted further development of the truck charging infrastructure, while at the same time raising awareness of the needs of the logistics industry and its e-truck drivers. In this way, the involved stakeholders from politics and industry can set an important course right from the start to make the charging of e-trucks as easy, efficient and demand-oriented as possible.”
To the publication (in German)
To the Charging Infrastructure for Commercial Vehicles subpage (in German)
To an overview of the use case landscape (in German)