Complementary technologies for BEV trucks – a techno-economic comparison

enERSyn Focus Paper #3

Authors: Julius Jöhrens, Michel Allekotte, Florian Heining, Markus Werner, Martin Ruscher, Wolf-Peter Schill

Stationary charging stations will undoubtedly play a key role as energy supply for battery-powered trucks. However, expansion of this infrastructure faces challenges in various re-
spects (e.g. grid connection capacity, space requirements, heavy and expensive traction batteries), which open up application potential for complementary technologies. As such,
we consider in-motion power supply (electric road systems, ERS) as well as battery swap-
ping systems (BSS) in this paper.

ERS may be able to address some key challenges of stationary charging (especially in terms of space requirements, battery sizes, and operational adaptation requirements).
They can be considered advanced in terms of technical development, reliability, and standardization (especially overhead catenary technology). In contrast, for BSS, there is
still little practical experience for trucks in Europe and no standards, although the technology is being rolled out to a relevant extent in China.

A timely expansion of electricity supply networks along the main transport corridors is essential for powering electric heavy-duty transport, regardless of the charging technol-
ogy used. Based on current knowledge, this is likely to become a bottleneck for the achievable ramp-up speed of electric trucking.

BSS can potentially reduce the required local grid connection capacity through the provision of storage batteries and intelligent charging management, thus easing the grid con-
nection problem as the technology scales up. Potential synergetic effects with stationary charging as well as trade-offs (e.g. between reducing peak load for the grid and required
additional swap batteries) should be analysed quantitatively in future studies.

Assuming full capacity utilization for the infrastructure, truck operation with ERS and BSS is somewhat similar to stationary fast charging in terms of full costs for vehicle operators.
ERS tend to be significantly more expensive in the introductory phase due to their high up-front invest for initial operation.

Since there is currently no cross-manufacturer standard for BSS in Europe and most manufacturers have so far expressed little interest in BSS, achieving a comparable utilization
rate to fast-charging stations is likely to be challenging in the beginning. The most likely scenario for a BSS ramp-up is currently the “Tesla way”, i.e. a single vehicle manufacturer
leading the way and rolling out BSS at its own risk.

It is conceivable that significant differences in energy costs could arise due to differences in the electricity demand profiles of the infrastructures and their respective demand-side
flexibility. Further research should assess this quantitatively. 

The paper is available in German.