⚡Cutting Through the Hype: The Realities of Charging Electric Trucks 🚚🎢

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• Cutting Through the Hype: The Realities of Charging Electric Trucks 🚚🎢

• 3 Links 🔗

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Cutting Through the Hype: The Realities of Charging Electric Trucks 🚚🎢

At the recent IAA in Hannover, electric semi-trailer trucks took center stage. The buzz was unmistakable, with social media feeds covering the latest news:

• Tesla's Semi made its European debut, with our friend Jaan delivering in-depth coverage from the IAA (link)

• Mercedes launched their eActros (check out our past article)

• Milence showcased a 1:1 model of their truck charging hub design (link for pictures)

As electric trucks gain momentum, excitement among the EV charging industry is increasing. Today, we’ll have a look beyond the hype, examining the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in semi truck charging.

Breaking Down the Charging Use Cases 🔌

Electric truck charging scenarios differ significantly based on location and operational needs. Here’s a breakdown of the primary charging use cases:

1. Depot Charging: Power levels of 25-150 kW with 4-10 hour charging windows, ideal for fleet operators with regular (overnight) stops. There are nuances of this where depot access is shared among peers (e.g. neighboring companies) to improve depot ROI. Generally, this is where most energy is charged because of predictable access and the lowest kWh price.

2. Destination Charging (while loading / waiting): 150-350 kW with 1-2 hour windows, suited for scheduled stops during deliveries.

3. Public Fast Charging: High-power charging between 350 kW and 1.5 MW (Megawatt), enabling quick 30-60 minute top-ups for trucks on long hauls during mandatory driver’s recovery time.

4. Public Overnight Charging: 100-350 kW for extended periods (over 8 hours), necessary for longer rest stops where megawatt charging isn’t needed.

Electric Trucks Are Coming: Will they jam up public EV Charging Stations? 🚚

Infrastructure Density: One of the biggest challenges to deploy electric semi trucks for routes that require charging outside of depots is the lack of dedicated truck charging infrastructure along major routes such as the TEN-T network in Europe. Today, the economics of charging electric trucks are still evolving. For charging point operators (CPOs), electric trucks represent a unique opportunity due to their higher energy consumption per charging session. However, the low volume of trucks on the road today makes it financially challenging to justify installing dedicated charging stations. But if history (of passenger EVs) is any guide, the chicken-and-egg problem around charging infrastructure and electric trucks needs to be solved.

Govermental bodies are aware about this problem. For example the german goverment published the details for tenders of a nation-wide truck charging network along its highways last week. By 2030, the German government wants to implement around 4,200 charging points for heavy commercial vehicles at 350 locations. This includes approximately 1,800 MCS (Megawatt Charging System) and 2,400 CCS (Combined Charging System) charging points.

However, until these sites are built at the required density within the next few years, electric trucks will need to share or use passenger EV infrastructure as a backup. This will lead to issues around available space for parking at the charging stations and charging port accessibility due to the size of truck bodies and cable length of the charging stations. Only a small number of today’s high power charging stations have been installed as drive-through solution with sufficient space and witout height and weight restrictions. Which leaves truck drivers with the option to uncouple the trailer or potentially block space at other charging stations (see picture below from Elektrotrucker's video).

Do we need a Megawatt Charging System? The good news is that most routes can be electrified using the Combined Charging System (CCS), which can provide up to 400 kW of power output. Tobi's first-hand experience (highly recommend to check out his Youtube channel Elektrotrucker - in german) shows how it's done by using every mandatory driver’s rest stop as charging time, so the electric truck is always ready for spontaneous long haul trips. This impressively demonstrates that even longer distances can be easily electrified with CCS alone. However, the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), which can provide a maximum power output of up to 3.75 MW, will bring greater flexibility to the electric truck charging ecosystem, and a handful of companies (see graphic below) have announced that they will support MCS charging in their products. Another good thing about MCS is that the port location on the vehicle is standardized, which makes it easier for CPOs to plan infrastructure layouts. We expect that most truck OEMs will support CCS and MCS charging on their vehicles to make their vehicle more accessible to the available infrastructure (but don't expect AC charging for trucks).

New Chance for an Interoperable Reservation System: Reservation has been an topic for passenger charging infrastructure for years. We can see implementations of a proper E2E reservation solution in closed ecosystems (e.g. Electra, Audi, and Mercedes Charging Hubs). However, reservation functionality in an interoperable public charging ecosystem has not seen widespread adoption due to technical complexity on the backends, limited value proposition, and the need for onsite ad-ons. This is a different story for electric truck fleet operators, who want to be assured that a charger will be available upon arrival of the driver, especially on tight delivery schedules.

The influence of grid connection power and energy sourcing on charging price One electric truck is equivalent to about four to eight electric passenger cars with a concurrency factor of one. This means that one truck using the MCS plug to charge is the equivalent to four Porsche Taycans arriving at the same time and charging at 350kW. What used to be a CPO's worst nightmare in terms of grid connection and more impotantly the grid fees is scaled to a new dimension. We already see large scale grid batteries deployed to bring flexibility in the energy system as standonle unit. Most likely those systems will become cruical in truck charging as well. We expect to see more battery-buffered charging systems that will make it possible to use sites as public fast charging hubs for trucks and keep grid fees at a economically viable level. At the same time, battery-buffered charging systems will help to optimize energy sourcing and increase the share of renewable energy in the public charging infrastructure. When it comes to pricing public charging for electric trucks, the fleet operators point of view needs to be front and center. Naturally, fleet operators are much more cost-conscious. Matching this with the CPO’s point of view, we expect a price differentiation among three dimensions:

• When do you want to charge? → charging price based on the time of the day; Energy costs are different depending on the time of use. Also some hours of the day show more demand for charging then others. Time of use tariffs can also be used to steer utilization.

• How fast do you want to charge? (represented in kW) time = convenience and higher charging power = more costs. To give it a positive twist. If you can give charging more time, it’s flexibility that can be used by the CPO to dynamically allocate power to the charger which saves costs.

• Where do you want to charge? → Location, location, … Naturally some locations show more demand than others.

Put it all together and you end-up with time-of-use tariffs, where the cost per kWh varies depending on the time of day and location. This will play an increasingly important role in optimizing charging schedules and routes, and help to ensure maximum usage of charging infrastructure. The real innovation here will be a brokerage system that can link the fleet operator's charging needs with the CPO's capacity offerings to optimize costs at both ends through information sharing and demand matching.

Beyond the Plug: How Smart Depot Charging Transforms Energy Management for Electric Trucks ⚡️

Depot charging is quickly becoming the backbone of electric truck operations. In the passenger EV space, compact all-in-one units like Alpitronic’s Hypercharger dominate due to their simplicity and smaller footprint. However, for electric truck depots, satellite DC-fast charging systems—such as Kempower’s setup with a centralized power cabinet and distributed charging outlets—are proving superior despite higher upfront complexity and installation costs. Philipp Senoner, CEO of Alpitronic, confirmed at the E.On Drive Summit stage, that they are working on a satellite solution which was also teased through a recent LinkedIn post for their MCS solution (link)

Firstly, these systems eliminate the need to re-park trucks once charging is completed, offering greater flexibility to seamlessly integrate charging into existing depot workflows. Power can be dynamically allocated to the outlets based on demand, making the process more efficient.

Secondly, those outlets can be retrofitted more easily into existing building infrastructure. New installations setups are made possible through the seperation of the power stacks and the dispenser outlets (e.g. picture below).

Thirdly, when trucks are plugged in, they introduce flexibility to the energy ecosystem. They allow for surplus solar energy to be used for charging, optimize energy costs through scheduled charging based on dynamic energy tariffs, and enable revenue opportunities by participating in demand response programs with grid operators (DSOs and TSOs). This system not only supports fleet operations but also turns depots into active energy hubs.

Energy Source as competence for semi truck operators: For years, fleet managers had the straightforward task of calling their diesel supplier to top off their tanks. However, in the electric truck era, energy sourcing has become far more complex due to the increased volatility in energy prices driven by the growing share of renewables in the grid. Fleet operators now need to adopt professional energy procurement strategies to secure the best rates for clean and affordable energy. The success of transitioning to electric semi-trucks will largely depend on smart energy purchasing, making it a critical factor for long-term viability of electric trucks.

Hope you enjoyed my views on the realities of charging electric trucks. Thanks to Tobias Wagner and Johnny Nijenhuis for their unique insights and perspectives. Contact me, Julius, if you have feedback and new perspectives on truck charging!

3 Links 🔗

• GM customer get Supercharger accces 🔌: GM has begun selling NACS adapters in the U.S. for $225, enabling its customers to access Tesla's Supercharger network. The rollout is part of GM’s broader plan to expand EV charging access, with Canadian availability coming later this year (link).

• ChargeScape CEO appointment 🧑‍💼: ChargeScape, the joint venture formed by BMW, Ford, and Honda, has named Joseph Vellone as its first CEO. Joseph led ev.energy’s North American business as general manager. ChargeScape wants to build a platform that connects EVs to the power grid, helping to enhance grid stability while offering drivers cost-saving opportunities on charging - much like ev.energy’s purpose (link).

• NIO launches ONVO L60 🚗 : Nio introduced Onvo, a budget-friendly sub-brand for families, with prices starting at 206,900 yuan ($26,307), which drops to 149,900 yuan ($21,208) with a battery subscription. The ONVO L60 SUV features a 900V battery system and the lowest drag coefficient (0.229) in its class, achieving 12.1 kWh per 100 km efficiency. Early buyers get benefits like free autopilot software and battery rental discounts. (Link)

Most-clicked link last week: Was the US Joint Office of Energy and Transportation released document to support the “Standardized Protocol for Real-Time APIs as Required by Title 23 CFR 680.116(c),”. A resource with recommendations for deploying the necessary APIs (link).

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