Hybrid trucks to power up on electrical overhead line

The Handy Shipping Guide is reporting that the German state of Hesse has commissioned Siemens to build an overhead powerline for electrified freight transport on a 10km stretch of autobahn. The eHighway concept, unveiled by Siemens in 2012, will supply power for an electric hybrid truck. The field test – on the A5 federal autobahn between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd interchange at the Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt/Weiterstadt interchange – will be the first on a German public highway, and forms part of a joint project with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The article notes that while the system is hardly ground breaking – trolleybuses were used across Europe and the US as far back as the 1800s – it has rarely been utilised by the freight sector.