The world's first public road project with electrified highway trucks is being conducted in Sweden, and will soon be replicated in California as well.
Sweden's Minister for Infrastructure Anna Johansson and the Minister of Energy Ibrahim Baylan recently inaugurated the first eHighway system on a public road, a two-kilometer stretch of the E16 highway north of Stockholm.
The trial will last two years and was born from the collaboration of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania with German company
The core of the system is an intelligent pantograph, the folding framework which enables the truck to connect to and disconnect from the power source, combined with a hybrid drive system.
Where the catenary system is not present, trucks are able to travel using their diesel engine, unlike trolleybuses, which can only run on fixed route.
Even in optimal situations, drivers will be able to choose whether to connect or not to the overhead contact depending on the different traffic conditions. As the electric system allows for speeds of up to 90 km/h (56 mph), teamsters might find for instance convenient to disconnect when overtaking.
Vehicles are also able to recover the energy produced when braking and feed it back into the grid, making the eHighway system even more sustainable and, according to Siemens, twice as efficient as conventional internal combustion engines.
Electric highways are part of a wider effort by Swedish authorities to make the country's transport sector fossil fuel independent by 2030. Right now, almost half of Sweden's CO2 emissions are coming from freight transport and that percentage is scheduled to grow in the coming years, even as rail capacity is increased.
"By far the greatest part of the goods transported in Sweden goes on the road, but only a limited part of the goods can be moved to other traffic types. That is why we must free the trucks from their dependence on fossil fuels, so that they can be of use also in the future. Electric roads offer this possibility and are an excellent complement to the transport system",the chief strategist of the Swedish Transport Administration, Anders Berndtsson, said in a statement.
In California, Siemens has signed almost two years ago a contract with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to demonstrate the system. It took a while to turn this commitment into reality, but the company is currently installing a two-mile long overhead contact line system for hybrid electric trucks near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, two of the largest such facilities in the country.
"The economic logic of the eHighway system is very compelling for cities like LA, where many trucks travel a concentrated and relatively short distance. Highly travelled corridors such as this are where we will initially see eHighway being applied," said the president of Siemens Mobility and Logistics division in the U.S, Matthias Schlelein, at the time of the announcement.
The tests will be conducted in California throughout 2017.
