Series of articles: The Path to Climate-Neutral Heavy-Duty Transport – Fast-charging infrastructure in Germany

To achieve Germany’s climate protection goals, emissions from heavy commercial vehicles must be reduced to net zero by 2045. With increasingly powerful batteries, a growing charging infrastructure, and rising economies of scale, the conditions are favorable to initiate the transformation towards climate-neutrality in the heavy commercial vehicle sector. This transformation is no longer a niche topic. The logistics industry is deeply engaged with the transition and is awaiting the entry of climate-neutral vehicles into the mass market.

The transformation faces both technical and infrastructural problems as well as energy and economic challenges. On the technical and infrastructural side, the primary issues are the lack of charging infrastructure and the associated speed of energy infrastructure expansion. Economically, the high initial investments for infrastructure and vehicles are the biggest obstacles. However, there are ways to address these challenges. Optimized, bidirectional charging at depots can help reduce costs. Additionally, the symbiosis of PV systems and public charging during midday presents a promising solution to meet charging needs.

In this five-part series, we will delve into various aspects of the transformation to a climate-neutral commercial vehicle sector, focusing primarily on battery-electric commercial vehicles.

In the second article of the series on climate-neutral heavy-duty transport, we build on the potential ramp-up paths described in the first article to explore the implications of extensive electrification of the entire German commercial vehicle fleet. To operate all commercial vehicles on a widespread electric basis, the necessary charging infrastructure must be available. Three different options for expanding the charging infrastructure are available, which should complement each other as sensibly and economically efficiently as possible.

Similar to the passenger car segment, it is anticipated that the “early adopters” of battery-electric commercial vehicles will have their own charging points at their home depots. Contrary to privately used passenger cars, which statistically spend most of their lives stationary, the economic performance and thus the movement of the vehicle is paramount for commercially used (utility) vehicles. Ensuring a charging option is therefore indispensable and will likely lead to the primary coverage of the charging needs at the home depot in the early stages of the ramp-up of electric commercial vehicles. Depending on the type and size of the depot, different requirements for the charging infrastructure arise. The varying downtimes, usage behaviors, and dimensions of these depots, as well as the resulting demands on the charging infrastructure, are a research focus of FfE in the SPIRIT-E project, which investigates bidirectional charging and the possibility of reserving charging infrastructure for external vehicles at the depot.

In the context of the electrification of long-distance transport (vehicles with over 400 km of daily mileage), charging at public infrastructure is necessary. Here, public overnight charging, i.e., charging overnight at public rest and parking areas, plays an important role. Particularly, parking spaces at motorway rest areas are already largely fully occupied overnight. The expected vehicle ramp-up (see Article 1) alone and the associated need to develop new rest areas and parking spaces already pose a significant infrastructural challenge. Under the premise of commercial vehicle electrification, there is also the need to equip a large portion of these parking spaces with charging infrastructure.

Figure 1 illustrates the public parking spaces recorded in Germany, where charging infrastructure can be implemented to meet the energy needs of the vehicles. Despite the challenges regarding infrastructure development, overnight charging offers great potential on the path to climate-neutral heavy-duty transport. The driving breaks that already occur overnight are used to fully charge the vehicles with “low” power. As a result, the costly expansion of fast-charging infrastructure can be partially mitigated.

The expansion of fast-charging infrastructure represents the third key pillar on the path to successful electrification of commercial vehicles. Fast-charging technology is intended to utilize the mandatory driving breaks to enable the unrestricted use of battery-electric vehicles in long-distance transport. According to Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006, a break of at least 45 minutes must be taken after a maximum of 4.5 hours of driving time. These 45 minutes are the central parameter for which a fast-charging system is designed, necessitating charging systems in the megawatt range. One of these so-called Megawatt Charging Systems (MCS) was recently successfully tested and publicly demonstrated for the first time in the NEFTON research project.

The relevance and potential of this technology already play a central role in political future planning. For instance, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) recently launched the “Truck Fast Charging Network” initiative. According to the current plan, a total of 350 locations will be equipped with approximately 1,800 MCS and 2,400 CCS charging points (see planned locations of the truck fast-charging network in Figure 1). Significant infrastructure and particularly grid expansion costs will arise in this context.

Figure 2 illustrates this using a modeled replication of a real rest area with 42 parking spaces for commercial vehicles, which must be adequately equipped with charging infrastructure to meet the projected ramp-up of electric cars and trucks by 2030, providing an installed capacity of approximately 18 MW. The modeling shows that the majority of the resulting load is attributable to the electrified commercial vehicle traffic. The resulting peak load of approximately 13 MW on the exemplary weekday is due to charging processes with prioritized high power during the midday driving breaks. It also becomes clear that the modeled vehicles prioritize the more cost-effective charging points with “lower” power in the evening to recharge their vehicles during the overnight stays.

The example illustrates the significant challenges that the ramp-up of commercial vehicle electrification will bring when the majority of rest areas shown in Figure 1 are equipped with charging infrastructure. A nationwide extrapolation allows for an initial assessment of the aggregated midday peak load based on the modeling.

Referring to the electrification ramp-up paths of commercial vehicles modeled in Article 1, a yearly energy demand of 69 TWh for heavy commercial vehicles is projected for 2045 (Scenarios AE35 & AE40). The share of energy demand for commercial vehicles traveling over 400 km daily is between 70 – 80 percent (approximately 48 to 55 TWh), depending on the scenario. These vehicles need to recharge during the day to cover their daily mileage. Assuming that half of this energy demand (about 24 to 28 TWh) occurs within a four-hour window at midday, peak loads of approximately 19 to 22 GW will result in Germany during these hours, solely from the intermediate charging of electric commercial vehicles. This corresponds to about a quarter of today’s total peak load in Germany.

However, new synergies also arise, which need to be explored. In this context, the upcoming contribution will address the potential created by the symbiosis of photovoltaic systems in close proximity to fast-charging infrastructure.

Further information:

• Electrification and Integration of Heavy Commercial Vehicles (NEFTON)
• Influence of the ramp-up of battery electric commercial vehicles on distribution grid planning
• SPIRIT-E – Shared private charging infrastructure and reservation for bidirectionally integrated truck elektrification
• Bid-E-V – bidirectional electric vans