News / Megawatt charging tech for trucks 'represents an enormous step forward'

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Technical University of Munich (TUM) claims that, with a new megawatt charger, it has added the necessary critical mass for widespread adoption of electric trucks.

The announcement, which followed the unveiling of a megawatt truck and ship charger at the Shell Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam that demonstrated the feasibility of truck charging at a megawatt scale.

In theory, this could allow heavy goods vehicles to be fully charged in under an hour and run for 4.5 hours, answering one of various concerns about the technology.

For example, some 70% of German freight moves on roads, and critics of electric trucks point out that the huge power supply needed to charge the fleet would require new power stations to be built close to where trucks are charged.

However, the production method of electric trucking’s rival technology, hydrogen, is so inefficient, even with today’s technology, that for every wind turbine dedicated to hydrogen production – for use as fuel, or as feedstock for green methanol or ammonia – more than 85% of its energy would be wasted.

“The scientific facts send a clear message: battery-powered trucks have an efficiency of around 75%. This puts them far ahead of trucks powered by fuel cells, with 26% efficiency, and eFuels’ 14% efficiency,” said TUM engineering and design professor Markus Lienkamp.

“However, the necessary infrastructure for the effective use of electric trucks is still lacking along the main transport routes. The technology for megawatt charging represents an enormous step forward.”

However, German carmakers – which employ 700,000 and make up 5% of the nation’s economy – are liable to be less enthused by the news from Munich.

China’s supremacy in electric vehicle mnufacturing, which also includes close ties with battery makers, means a shift to EVs is regarded as an inevitable secession of ground to PRC carmakers. In its manifesto for the European parliament elections in June, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said it would oppose the EU’s 2035 phase-out of internal combustion engine cars.

“We want to abolish the ban on combustion engines and preserve Germany’s cutting-edge combustion engine technology, and develop it further in a technology-neutral way,” said the June manifesto seen by Euractiv.

Until recently, Daimler Trucks and some other manufacturers favoured hydrogen, even criticising the notion of long-haul electric trucks. But Daimler has subsequently embraced a ‘dual strategy’, involving electric models as part of its line-up.