What prerequisites and requirements do logistics companies in Germany have for charging battery-electric trucks?

Fraunhofer ISI has published the detailed results of the study in the latest HoLa Working Paper "Requirements of German logistics companies for charging battery-electric trucks: Results of a combined survey and interview study". The following text provides an insight into the results. Further information can be found under the link to the full version of the working paper embedded at the bottom of the page.

Do current tour characteristics and parking situations offer opportunities for charging?

The results show that long-distance international and European trips tend to be less plannable, while shorter distances are more regular and plannable. However, even regional trips can vary greatly, and high regularity and plannability are rare and apply to urban and regional traffic only. The average total parking time of the companies' trucks per day is 11 hours, varying between 4.5 and 12 hours for most companies. Most trucks' longest coherent parking time varies between 9 and 12 hours.

Where are the longest parking times and mandatory breaks spent?

Trucks rather stop at private properties than public spots during their longest coherent parking time. Private property dominates, especially for vehicles only used during the day, and vehicles returning from longer trips stay the entire night. However, public spots also remain highly frequented and present the location where the longest parking time occurs for over a third of the companies. This emphasises the demand for rather low-power charging facilities at both private and public locations. If trucks use public parking spots, off-highway rest areas, road-side parking and unmanaged parking lots are most frequented, irrespective of the usage profile.

For the mandatory breaks, most trucks stop in a public space. On long-distance trips, the mandatory breaks are predominantly spent in public locations such as rest areas off the highways or industrial areas. Private property of a customer is used less often, but more often than unmanaged public parking lots.

Interviewees considered it important to be able to strategically use charging processes during mandatory breaks in the future. On the one hand, this pertained the specific locations of the charging infrastructure. One interviewee pointed out that the location would have to be far enough from key destinations to contribute to bridging the remaining distance. On the other hand, the importance of infrastructure availability and reliability was mentioned, as illustrated by the respondents' idea of requiring a reservation system. For the public location, the driver was mentioned as a key variable. To serve their needs, the respondents pointed to the importance of having relevant break-time facilities, e.g., food and hygiene facilities, close by. Importantly, public charging would also require further clarifications for the drivers regarding charging versus break times.

Waiting times and loading processes at the clients' offer potential for charging

Charging at client locations was considered helpful for all tour types but most relevant for tours involving multiple stops and going beyond urban and regional distribution without repeated returns to the home depot in a day. At intermediate or final client destinations, two types of stops were reported as central to operations: waiting times and unloading or loading times. The respondents explained that charging while waiting for unloading or loading to commence would be ideal. Wait times can be counted as break times, unlike the actual loading process, which counts as working time for the driver. Thus, charging during this time would not disrupt the established break patterns but would rather be an efficient extension. However, the respondents find that wait times vary greatly and cannot easily be predicted beforehand. As a key bottleneck for charging at the clients', interviewees pointed out the dependency on the client's willingness to build charging infrastructure.

Are there additional factors that motivate logistics companies' engagement in fleet electrification?

Perceived external pressure and image

The companies that have ordered battery-electric trucks so far, are those with larger vehicle fleets. These companies seem to perceive BET activities by their competitors but do not yet feel pressure to act arising from them. However, companies with large and medium fleet sizes perceive customer expectations to purchase BET to some extent. All companies consider BETs to play a role in the sector and to improve a company's innovative image, more so than its environmental image and reputation with drivers. Personal motivation by decision-makers in the logistics company was also found as a potential key factor for acquiring knowledge and moving forward with electrification at the current transition stage.

Waiting for a comprehensive electrification offer and the appropriate electricity grid connections

One interviewee explained their current position as waiting for large, scalable solutions that would allow to charge multiple vehicles right away through combining the necessary requirements of electricity grid connection to medium voltage, electricity generation, and storage. The lack of appropriate connection power provided by their energy supplier at the logistics site was also named as a key bottleneck by the already active logistics companies.

Policies as incentives

Finally, regulatory requirements were considered a key motivator. On the one hand, regulations at the EU level require manufacturers to sell more alternative fuel vehicles in the heavy-duty sector - a requirement that logistics companies observe as they will be the ones operating these vehicles. On the other hand, regulations at the local level were mentioned, with electric vehicles adhering to, for example, noise restrictions for deliveries in cities.

Link to the working paper: 10.24406/publica-2615