Three of the Europe’s major truck manufacturing groups have joined forces to create a network of publicly accessible electric charging points for heavy-duty goods vehicles.
CM reported recently on renewed calls from ACEA, the vehicle manufacturers’ body, to create the infrastructure that is holding back the deployment of electric trucks. There is currently not a single public charging point suitable for trucks anywhere in Europe, despite ACEA predicting the need for 15,000 locations by 2025 and 50,000 by 2030.
Now TRATON, owner of MAN and Scania, Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz and FUSO electric trucks, and Volvo Group, with Volvo and Renault, have announced a joint venture to kick-start the process, which will begin to create a network of up to 1,700 charging points within five years, beginning in 2022. No details of locations have been revealed, but a spokesman for Volvo Trucks in the UK confirms that we are included in the plan. The joint venture will have its own corporate identity and will be based in Amsterdam.
In comments echoed by the other two CEOs, Matthias Gründler, CEO of the TRATON GROUP said “For the TRATON GROUP, it is clear that the future of transport is electric. This requires the rapid development of publicly accessible charging points, especially for long-distance heavy-duty transport. We are now moving forward together with our partners Daimler Truck and Volvo Group to make this high-performance network a reality as quickly as possible. We now make the first step to accelerate the transition towards sustainable, fossil free transport. The second step should be a strong engagement of the EU for the full scale-up of a charging network across Europe.”
