IAA Commercial Vehicles: The truck world goes electric

The mood at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover is pretty good, at least for everyone who had e-vehicles in their portfolio. The most striking thing was that the turnaround is taking place in heavy-duty semitrailer tractors for distribution and long-distance transport. None of those involved are questioning the whether, everyone is just working on the implementation. The simple reason: lower overall costs can already be realized today. What's important is the surrounding area, which consists of charging infrastructure and software tools. It is tipping in the direction of battery-electric drives, and fast.

For hauliers and logistics companies, only the total costs (total cost of ownership – TCO) count when selecting a tractor unit. These include energy costs, tolls, mechanics at the depot and, of course, the vehicles and the truckers themselves. This is precisely where the world of commercial vehicles is tipping from diesel engines to battery-electric drives: in the heavy-duty tractor units that move goods in distribution and long-distance transport. The mood at the IAA Commercial Vehicles stands of MAN and Iveco, Mercedes and Volvo is correspondingly good. Those who want to – and for the time being this is still most – will get the tried and tested diesel engine. But more and more are trying out the electric tractor unit.

The truth is that relevant products are only now going into series production. The Mercedes e-Actros 600 is representative of this: the 621 kWh of the traction battery is already sufficient for many applications. With an actual power consumption of 90 to 120 kWh/100 km, the legal driving times are the limiting factor: drive for 4.5 hours at a maximum speed of 80 km/h, charge for 45 minutes, drive for 4.5 hours. No, not all scenarios are mapped yet, and the truck-specific infrastructure is close to zero. But this will change radically in the foreseeable future.

Megawatt chargers at around half of the locations

On September 16, the National Charging Infrastructure Control Center published a call for tenders for the construction of charging stations at unmanaged service areas. The industry itself is also very active and has founded a joint venture with "Milence" for the installation of megawatt chargers: They deliver over 1000 kW – i.e. one megawatt – of charging power.

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Electric trucks: megawatt chargers could change the business

According to an analysis by the National Charging Infrastructure Control Center based on toll data, around half of the 350 identified public locations with over 4,200 charging points must be this powerful. For the others, charging capacities of up to 300 or 400 kW are sufficient, as is the case for cars. What is missing are drive-through solutions specifically for articulated trucks in the usual truck parking lots. The industry is certainly prepared. Alpitronic from Italy, for example, the market leader in DC charging stations, has announced a megawatt charger, as has its Polish competitor Ekoenergetyca.

Funding only necessary for the infrastructure

In background discussions at the IAA Commercial Vehicles, it became clear that infrastructure costs are the only area where those involved would still like to see funding. This is no longer necessary for tractor units, which cost around EUR 280,000 for e-trucks instead of around EUR 130,000 for diesel engines: The abolition of the toll by the end of 2025 and the subsequent reduction in the toll in conjunction with consistently lower driving energy costs will already make amortization possible.

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IAA Nutzfahrzeuge 2024 (4 Bilder)

In fact, you can hear sentences that would have been unthinkable in the commercial vehicle scene ten years ago: The most important thing would be political reliability, emphasize several high-ranking industry representatives. Stay on course for the switch to electric traction, please, and that now only means battery electric. Other options, such as hydrogen-powered fuel cells, are still on show but are no longer being pursued with any vigor. At best, they are interesting for the niche market. In the mainstream, costs are the deciding factor, and it is not foreseeable that hydrogen could compete with electricity as a driving energy.

Billing tools and customized charging solutions

The surrounding environment is at least as important as the vehicles. This becomes clear at Elli, a company that belongs to the Volkswagen Charging Group, among others. Elli is presenting the "ConnectPro" coordination tool in Hanover: Billing at the charging stations can be tracked directly by the fleet manager. All remotely. The aim is to make charging as low-threshold and uncomplicated as possible for drivers, i.e. without the hassle of paper receipts or the like.