Scania to Supply Trucks for German E-Highways
Scania has been awarded a contract by the German environment ministry to supply trucks for the country’s new ‘e-highways’.
The trucks will initially be trialed along the A5 autobahn in Hessen, the electrification of five kilometers of which is now complete. They will then be trialed along the A1 to Lübeck and a segment of the B462 in Baden-Württemberg, which are not scheduled to be electrified until summer 2019 and early 2020 respectively.
The 15 trial trucks will be equipped with Siemens pantograph power collectors mounted behind their cabs for on-the-road charging. Hauliers will use them for “actual transport operations”. The first truck, a hybrid R 450 is scheduled for delivery in May 2019. Scania will maintain the trucks and collate their data. It is also expected to supply trucks to Volkswagen for research into EV powertrains next year.
Scania head of electric road systems Magnus Höglund claimed the trucks’ on-the-road charging tech “saves batteries and reduces load on the energy network” at times “when stopping to charge can be highly disruptive”.
