E-Trucks: Suffering from range anxiety?
How to overcome your hesitation to go electric.
By Laura Gaenzle: Head of Business Solutions E-Mobility Group Daimler Trucks & Buses
The future of trucking is electric. No doubt. Fully CO2-neutral transport only works based on electric powertrains, meaning: Either battery-electric or hydrogen-powered. We see both technologies complementing each other depending on the use case. We at Daimler Trucks already have many electric trucks in customer trials around the world and the learnings are downright positive.
Nevertheless, we need to prepare all of our customers for electric trucks. But how to convince them to get started NOW?
The elephant in the room: range anxiety
There is lots of insecurity among truck customers when it comes to the range of electric vehicles. Understandably so! The technologies are new and there hasn’t been much experience in operating e-trucks compared to the good old diesel. This leads to doubt. Fleet owners ask themselves the question, if the range of e-trucks is actually sufficient for their operations. This is where we come into play and help to take away the doubt from customers with concrete measures. (Just pointing to the range on the product spec sheet does not suffice!) To set ourselves apart we have set up a team dedicated solely to consult customers on safe and easy entry into e-mobility. In a nutshell: We analyze the specific needs of our fleet customers, check the feasibility of electric trucks for their use cases and offer tailor-made solutions.
Are you ready? Introducing our ecosystem
Thanks to our close exchange with customers it was clear from the beginning that our consulting approach had to be embedded in a comprehensive ecosystem. An ecosystem that is built around the customer. This includes a set of consulting services and the installation of suitable charging infrastructure. The modular setup includes not only personal and individual consulting, but also digital applications that make it easier to get started with e-mobility. In a first step, the focus will be on the markets of Europe, North America and Japan.
Threefold consulting approach
Together with the customer, we first clarify the key concern for which application profiles and routes electric trucks are already suitable today. For this purpose, we launched the free “eTruck Ready” app, which uses existing driving routes to determine a realistic and meaningful usage profile of electric trucks for customers. (Yes, this includes range limiting factors such as temperature and payload.) From the data captured by the app, the individual web portal offered to fleet managers generates the respective range and expected power consumption of a suitable electric truck from our Daimler portfolio. You will be surprised to see how many use cases could already be covered by electric trucks today.
As soon as we take away range anxiety, the next question to pop up is dead certain: How do I charge? The charging processes of electric fleet vehicles must be integrated into the operating process. For this reason, a further focus of our consulting is on the analysis of the depots and the corresponding conception of the suitable infrastructure including intelligent charging solutions.
And finally, once the fleet manager is sure he can rely on the vehicle and has the right charging infrastructure, he will think about one equation only: cent per kilometer. Are operating electric vehicles in my fleet a sustainable business case? To help answering this question, our team examines the optimization of the total cost of ownership (TCO). We analyze and discuss, among other things, the possibilities of public funding for the infrastructure.
So what’s next? — The eTruck Charging Initiative
Our consulting approach attracted a lot of interest and positive feedback from customers.
And we want to continue this close discourse. But we won’t stop here. We have further widened our scope.
That is why we have launched a global initiative to help establish charging infrastructure for battery-electric trucks: the “eTruck Charging Initiative”. Here, we take an active role in driving the change towards battery-electric road freight transport — also beyond our e-trucks and consulting services.
Within the framework of the initiative, we get together with the main players contributing to this transformation. This includes not only e-truck customers, but also power grid operators, energy suppliers, charging hardware manufacturers and charging software providers. Here, we promote shared infrastructure solutions for truck customers within the network. First workshops already took place and the first joint pilot projects for setting up charging infrastructure at truck depots have also already been implemented or are in preparation. The focus of our activities is currently on the United States and Europe. Japan is the next market to follow.
The close dialog between the main players is also intended to speed up previously lengthy and complex planning and application processes for network connections. In addition, the participants are also concerned with aspects such as optimized load management of the electricity grid and sustainable electricity supply. In rural areas and when there is a high demand for electricity, it is also important for us to ensure charging reliability, which is another of the initiative’s subject areas.
Building up the know how
In the first step, we find out which power supply is available at a customer’s depot and which operating processes have an influence on power charging. With our new initiative we are now translating these findings into suitable offers together. This includes, for example, supporting truck customers in the selection of the energy supplier and of the charging-station provider, as well as providing the appropriate charging software.
Faster processes for lower costs
The earlier and more exactly the energy suppliers and power grid operators know what customers’ infrastructure requirements are, the faster and more efficiently they can build them up. So far, infrastructure projects have mostly been treated as individual cases. The initiative’s measures therefore include the development of standard concepts that cover common charging profiles.
Here the industry, vehicle downtime and charging characteristics offer good indications. Industrial customers who maintain logistics processes as well as production processes usually already have a high power connection in the depot, whereas logistics companies currently often only have a lower power connection. The clusters map such different requirements and consequently significantly reduce the planning time required. In addition, standardized and optimized forms accelerate the approval procedures for the network operators. Fast processes mean reduced costs for all involved.
Going for depot charging
With regards to charging infrastructure, we see three categories: depot charging, opportunity charging, and public charging. From our point of view, depot charging at the truck customers’ depots represents the first and most important step towards entering the world of e-mobility. This means that the current fields of application for electric trucks in connection with urban distribution traffic can already be covered and the infrastructure can be ideally adapted to the logistics provider’s processes.
The use of their own infrastructure usually offers advantages in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO), as no additional operator is involved. There is also no need for time-consuming billing and authentication of authorized vehicles, and a charging possibility can always be guaranteed. The charging procedures are subject to the company’s specifications and the energy costs can be calculated in advance.
Among other things, depot charging is suitable for applications with electric trucks in urban areas, which travel on routes that can be planned and which can be charged overnight or during regular downtimes. In most cases, there is therefore little or no change to the operating procedure. Battery-electric drive has the highest efficiency among the alternative drive systems, which is particularly useful in this application scenario due to the lowest energy costs. The development of further charging possibilities through opportunity charging and public charging will successively open up further applications with a larger radius of action for logistics companies.
