Electric truck charging corridors emerging in Germany
The first quarter of 2024 has brought two key announcements regarding the creation of truck charging corridors in Germany. Once realised, the projects could play a key role in expanding the amount of zero-emissions transports in the country.
Just over two months ago, the first charging corridor for medium and heavy-duty electric trucks in Europe was announced by bp pulse. That was followed in March by the announcement of the “HoLa” project.
The bp pulse initiative has already resulted in the launch of 6 public charging locations with ultra-fast 300kw chargers. The points are dotted along a 600km stretch of the Rhine-Alpine corridor across Germany. The 300kw charging stations are each capable of charging more than 20 electric trucks per charger each day.
When it comes to the “HoLa” project, it is to comprise a total of 8 high-performance charging points for trucks using the Megawatt Charging System at 5 locations along the A2 between Berlin and the Ruhr region. In total, 12 consortium and 10 associated partners from industry and research are involved in the “HoLa” project – including the truck manufacturers Daimler Truck, MAN, Scania, TRATON and Volvo.
According to research by Fraunhofer ISI, an initial electric charging network for Germany should cover approximately 142 locations. However, looking further into the future, the research concludes that Germany will need at least 1,000 charging points in 2030, assuming a maximum waiting time of 5 minutes during rush hour. Moreover, the people behind the research concluded that 2,000 charging points are likely to be required in order to deal with faster market diffusion of long-haul electric trucks and longer standing times.
