If the German government is to meet its target to reduce CO2 emissions by 65 percent by 2030 – in line with the 2 degrees celsius goal set at the Paris Climate Accord – commercial trucking must be decarbonised. The Nefton project, which brings the Technical University of Munich (TUM) together with various industrial partners and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, aims to develop a wholly electric drive truck with a new concept for charging stations alongside.

“Our goal is to develop solutions that can be implemented quickly and at reasonable cost,” says Sebastian Wolff of the TUM Chair of Automotive Technology in a press release, “And do so with technology that is already available – combined in an entirely new way.” There are already a few short-haul E-truck pilots underway, but Nefton’s goal is to find solutions that work for long-distance as well. That means designing a truck with ultra-fast charging battery cells and high-performance cooling systems.

In terms of infrastructure, the team are looking at a combination of overnight charging with daytime boosts along the route provided by charging stations capable of delivering up to 1.5 megawatt power. This presupposes a powerful grid connection and available capacity, which may not be the case. The pilot will therefore use stationary buffer storage units to compensate for the power limitations of the local grid.

The idea is to make charging bilateral so that when trucks are lying idle for extended periods of time, they can be used to store surplus electricity in the grid from renewable sources. Bilateral charging is already possible with E-cars but heavy goods vehicles have far greater storage potential.

The design of the batteries, the electric charging infrastructure, and fleet logistics will be conducted in cooperation with commercial partners from truck manufacturers to logistics operators to ensure feasibility and economic viability.