Road freight electrification around the world using electric road systems

Abstract

Electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) require large batteries for sufficient range, which makes them heavy and reduces their efficiency. On their own, they are unlikely to be sufficient for countries with long travelling distances in remote areas. Hence, this work investigates the feasibility and impact of electrifying heavy goods vehicles across countries using electric road systems (ERS) that use overhead catenary cables to power HGVs, thus reducing the need for very large batteries. In this analysis, specific journeys from three countries were studied to obtain the necessary battery sizes. The journeys analysed include a long-haul international journey on the A20-H401 corridor in Canada, a single-day long-haul journey and a multi-day ‘tramping’ journey in South Africa, and three multi-drop journeys in the UK. The ERS locations in Canada are chosen along the A20-H401 corridor, while those in the UK and South Africa are based on a cost break-even study. It is shown that using the ERS results in reduced battery size requirements of less than 350 kWh for most journeys, thus reducing costs and increasing payload capacity. The ERS also supplements static charging infrastructure well for journeys that are not entirely on the ERS.