MENU

Siemens, Conti join forces for overhead power for trucks

Siemens, Conti join forces for overhead power for trucks

Business news |
By Christoph Hammerschmidt



The cooperation aims to electrify key stretches of Germany’s autobahn network with overhead contact lines and thus in the long term reduce CO2 emissions from trucks. The partnership with Continental combines expertise from two technology worlds: Siemens Mobility is a specialist in rail electrification, Continental Engineering Services (CES) is a development and production service provider for automotive technologies. The partners intend to pool their know-how to quickly achieve series production of truck pantographs.

“Highway freight transport plays a central role in the fight against climate change. In Germany, it accounts for one-third of all the CO2 emissions in the transport sector,” says Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility. “Truck manufacturers are pursuing various concepts to reduce this burden. With its eHighway, Siemens Mobility has developed a ready-to-use technology for energy-efficient, cost-effective and emission-free truck transport that can be combined with other drive systems to become the backbone for fighting climate change in this sector”, Peter advertises.

On the eHighway, electric trucks can operate electrically and at the same time charge their batteries without using fuel, explains CES CEO Christoph Falk-Gierlinger. The company plans to apply the principle of rail electrification to the highway. The pantographs will be further developed and manufactured to meet automotive standards, he adds.

The decisive factor with the eHighway is that there is no need to electrify complete autobahns. Germany’s “National Platform for the Future of Mobility”, an innovation initiative of the Federal Ministry of Transport, recommends that 4,000 kilometers of autobahns be equipped with overhead line systems by 2030, taking into account that roughly two-thirds of the fuel consumption in long-distance truck transport occurs on the most heavily traveled 4,000 kilometers of the 13,000-kilometer autobahn network. If this network core can be electrified and trucks operating on the routes with electric drives (battery, hybrid, hydrogen) can be supplied with electricity, this would make a major contribution to climate protection.

Siemens Mobility’s eHighway is currently being tested on three public routes in Germany: on the A5 autobahn in the state of Hesse between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd junction at Frankfurt Airport and Darmstadt/Weiterstadt; in the state of Schleswig-Holstein on the A1 autobahn between the Reinfeld and Lübeck junctions; and on a smaller stretch of the B462 federal highway in the state of Baden-Württemberg. These field tests are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure supports the scaling of overhead lines for long-distance transport in innovation clusters and intends to initiate large pilot systems by 2023. Siemens Mobility and CES plan to make the overhead contact line system for trucks available throughout Europe.

https://www.mobility.siemens.com/global/en.html

Related articles

UK plan to electrify motorways for electric trucks

Germany starts third eHighway field trial

Scania to supply electric trucks for German eHighway project

 

 

If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :    eeNews on Google News

Share:

Linked Articles
10s