Share charging to cut costs, Fraunhofer tells electric truck fleets
When the ‘Transportation in Charge’ project launched in April 2023, the landscape of freight transport electrification looked very different: at that time, neither the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 nor the MAN eTGX were available on the market – and consequently, there were no heavy-duty long-haul battery-electric trucks being produced by German manufacturers. As a result, there was little demand for charging infrastructure tailored to trucks with massive batteries of around 600 kWh capacity.
Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, ‘Transportation in Charge’ (TiC) initially focused on fundamental research, exploring how concepts for planning charging infrastructure for commercial battery-electric vehicles in industrial estates and freight transport hubs could be designed. The underlying principle was that transport companies should not operate in isolation but instead adopt cooperative approaches, which make significant sense in this context.
Three years later, TiC has now concluded. The project was able to closely accompany the ramp-up of the first heavy-duty e-trucks from Germany and their corresponding charging infrastructure, with practical partners including the Behrens Group and Rhenus Home Delivery, both operating electric commercial vehicles. And now, project leader Sönke Stührmann and his colleague Karl Glökler from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM) have shared the key findings from the project with electrive.
A central premise of the study is that industrial estates and freight transport hubs represent a kind of powerhouse for the electrification of freight transport. After all, these areas host the depots of logistics companies as well as the distribution centres and production sites of businesses. Equipping such locations with charging infrastructure enables battery-electric commercial vehicles to charge overnight or during loading and unloading, reducing reliance on public charging stations.
Grid connections: the bottleneck for truck charging stations
However, industrial estates also present significant challenges for the deployment of charging infrastructure – particularly concerning grid connections. Without an appropriate medium-voltage connection, ultra-fast chargers can only be implemented with dedicated PV systems and battery storage. Accordingly, the action recommendations published at the project’s conclusion – available for download here – place responsibility on grid operators: these “play a central role, as the electrification of logistics fleets can only be scaled if sufficient grid connection capacities are available in commercial and logistics areas.”
Consequently, logistics companies and transport hubs cannot simply procure electric trucks without simultaneously ensuring the necessary charging options—and they depend on grid operators to do so. “The electrification of large truck fleets only succeeds if we view industrial estates as a holistic system. The key is early and coordinated collaboration between companies, grid operators, and municipalities—technical solutions alone are not enough,” explains Stührmann.
At the same time, companies looking to integrate e-trucks into their fleets must recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for charging infrastructure; each case must be assessed individually. The required charging power must be determined based on vehicle utilisation and downtime: while standard depot charging overnight often requires 50 to 100 kW, tightly scheduled shuttle operations may demand 200 to 350 kW. The grid connection and site conditions must also be considered early on. In the practical examples examined, medium-voltage connections and flexibly expandable DC charging stations had to be implemented.
The TiC project also addressed how the substantial capital expenditures (CAPEX) for grid expansion and charging hardware could be distributed across multiple stakeholders. The project’s exploration of shared charging – i.e., the joint use of charging infrastructure in industrial estates – proved to be a game-changer. This approach is further detailed in a dedicated guide and legal opinion, both of which can be downloaded from the TiC website.
Shared charging as a lever for cost reduction
“Shared charging infrastructure is not just a theoretical concept but a key lever for reducing costs, relieving grid pressure, and accelerating fleet electrification. The prerequisites are clear legal frameworks, transparent roles, and trust among all involved parties,” emphasises Stührmann.
A case study from the TiC project demonstrates that selling charging electricity to third parties can reduce total costs for fleet operators: while a fleet of ten e-trucks in the base scenario – with a five-year holding period and 60,000 km annual mileage per vehicle – costs around €352,859 (compared to €367,974 for diesel), these costs drop to €336,903 when additional third-party electricity sales are included. This accelerates the break-even point but requires careful coordination of access rights and contractual frameworks. Incidentally, Fraunhofer IFAM generally assumes that a charging electricity price of approximately 30 cents/kWh is sufficient to achieve break-even with diesel trucks, even without shared charging.
“Our analyses of real-world operational data clearly show: electric trucks are reliable today and can be economically viable. Those who integrate charging infrastructure, energy management, and fleet strategy holistically create the foundation for a sustainable transformation,” Stührmann concludes.