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Sunset at the North Campus © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund
RESEARCH BY PROFESSOR CHRISTIAN REHTANZ ON MEGAWATT CHARGING FOR TRUCKS

New Consortium Aims to Advance Electric Heavy Goods Transport

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A gray truck stands next to an electric charging pole with an electric car charging cable plugged into it. © scharfsinn86​/​Adobe Stock
Um den Einsatz batterieelektrischer Antriebe und speziell das Megawattladen bei schweren Nutzfahrzeugen voranzutreiben, sind Hochleistungsladeparks unerlässlich.
A new collaborative research project on the topic of electric heavy goods transport was launched at the end of September with a total of 13 partners from industry and research. Under the title “High-Performance Charging for Long-distance Trucks” (HoLa), two high-performance charging points will be set up at each of four sites and operated as well as tested in real logistics operations. Professor Christian Rehtanz and his team at TU Dortmund University are responsible for the accompanying research.

“After electric cars, in the interest of climate protection we now have to tackle heavy goods transport and show that this can also function well with electricity,” says Professor Christian Rehtanz, explaining the task that the consortium will be tackling from now on. This development requires a massive expansion of infrastructure, especially in the area of megawatt charging. The HoLa project aims to contribute the necessary know-how by building and operating prototype high-performance charging points for trucks. It is one of three innovation clusters for climate-friendly truck drive technologies launched by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).

High-performance charging points are indispensable

To advance the use of battery electric drives and especially megawatt charging for heavy commercial vehicles, high-performance charging points are indispensable. Currently, however, there are still a lot of unanswered questions and above all a lack of experience in the setting up and operation of such charging points. This is precisely where HoLa comes in: Under the aegis of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, the consortium will set up and operate a total of eight high-performance charging points at four sites.

Portrait of a man, Prof. Christian Rehtanz, on white background. © Felix Schmale​/​TU Dortmund
Professor Christian Rehtanz is Professor for Energy Systems and Energy Economics at TU Dortmund University.

First of all, CCS (Combined Charging System) charging points will be planned and put into practice in a first phase, followed by high-performance charging points using MCS (Megawatt Charging System) technology.

The sites are located along the A2 highway between the Ruhr region and Berlin – in addition to highway rest areas, they also include logistics centers so that different applications can be taken into consideration.

In the framework of the project, the Institute for Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency and Energy Economics (ie3) at TU Dortmund University, headed by Professor Christian Rehtanz, is dealing with the integration of high-performance charging infrastructure into the electrical energy system and especially into power grids. They are examining whether grid connection is possible at the demonstration sites, but also across the whole of Germany, and which technical and economic aspects need to be considered.

Partners from industry and research

The project has an overall budget of € 27 million, funding of € 12 million and will run until the end of 2024. A total of 13 partners from industry and research are involved: Fraunhofer ISI is consortium leader, and P3 Automotive GmbH is responsible for project management. Other partners are EnBW mobility+ as operators of the charging stations as well as charging infrastructure suppliers ABB, Heliox and Siemens. Daimler Truck, TRATON, MAN, Scania and Volvo are responsible for the vehicles. In addition to Fraunhofer ISI and TU Dortmund University, the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, the University of Stuttgart, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and TU Berlin are accompanying the demonstration project.

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