In late September Ti Research Analyst Richard Shrubb attended part of the Charged Engineering Conference where Mark VanWingerden, Global Product Strategy Manager, eMobility, Eaton explained that in planning a battery electric truck (BET) fleet it pays to give substantially faster charges than the minimum. Ultimately such infrastructure costs less to install and keeps more of a BET fleet ready for action.

With the technology available today, most BETs will not require public charging as part of their daily routines. This is particularly the case with regional and local delivery routes, whose trucks can be charged at the depot without recourse to using public chargers.

Faster charges for shorter periods

In the experience of early adopter organisations such as those on the Run on Less trial underway in the United States at present:

  • Local delivery BETs driving 200km in 24 hours need 150kW of charge over one 2 hour daily session
  • Regional delivery vehicles driving 965km in 24 hours with two shifts of drivers will need two, 600kW charges over two hours per session
  • A long haul sleeper doing 965km over 24 hours will theoretically need three, 1MW, one-hour charging sessions

Why?

It’s all down to the cost-benefit. The long-haul driver will not necessarily be able to get onto a charger the moment they need, and for depot charging it can be cheaper to install fewer, faster chargers than more, slower ones. The graphic below explains the cost-benefit analysis required for each use-case for depot and public charger uses:

Megawatt charging cost versus benefit

Cost Benefit
Bigger or faster batteries Flexibility – when and where to charge
Robust power distribution & protection Time – increased available uptime
Thermal management Fast charging with fewer plugs

 

Source: Charged/Eaton

Some 80% of the costs of a fleet electrification programme comes from the infrastructure. That can be a big capital expenditure at the outset that needs not only future proofing but sensible design based on the best available understanding of such infrastructure projects. If done right, low operational expenditure (Opex) will lead to a lower total cost of ownership for the BET fleet than a combustion engined one.

The use cases can go up to 3.5MW and more, but the cost of such infrastructure kills the idea off, with the cost-benefit limit at around 1MW. The global Megawatt Charging Standard (MCS) protocol for ultra fast charging is being ironed out as we speak, and at least two companies are planning 1MW+ public charging networks across the UK and Europe. With these chargers will come things like pre-booking for access to a plug and comfortable rest areas for the BET drivers while plugging in.

Though the cost of depot infrastructure was discussed in the webinar, something not discussed was the cost of plugging in the BET into a MCS charger. In the experience of EV car and eLCV users, rapid charging can cost the driver more per mile than that of diesel. The question that stakeholders in any planned MCS public charging network need to answer is whether such a problem will be encountered by fleet managers with their long-haul fleets. That is beholden on the charging providers who need to remember for decarbonisation of road logistics to be possible it needs to be financially attractive for logistics companies.

Source: Ti Insight

Author: Richard Shrubb

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