Implementing catenary trucks “technically possible, but very challenging” – researchers

Catenary trucks powered by overhead lines represent an option for clean freight transport, yet setting up the required infrastructure on German motorways would be "technically possible, but very challenging," said Till Gnann, researcher at Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), presenting results of the research project BOLD. "The question is which technology will eventually prevail, how long it will take to build the infrastructure, and how long it can be subsidised given low utilisation," said Gnann. For the overhead line system and its market introduction to be successful, the vehicles and the infrastructure had to undergo further development and the German government would have to send a clear signal soon. 

While long seen as the most energy-efficient solution, experts have said in recent years that a large-scale roll-out of catenary trucks would have to overcome a chicken-and-egg problem: Trucking companies won't buy catenary trucks without the infrastructure in place, and there is little incentive to build so-called e-Highways as long as there are no catenary trucks around to use them. Thus, battery-electric trucks are set to take over heavy duty road freight because they are much cheaper to run than other low-emission technologies, Auke Hoekstra, a researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, told Clean Energy Wire.

Overseeing the BOLD project, Fraunhofer ISI, along with the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu) and the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut), provided scientific support accompanying three field trials and 12 research projects on electric trucks powered by overhead lines. They analysed the acceptance of the technology, its climate and environmental impact, and opportunities and barriers in industry. The project found that some energy sector stakeholders, haulage companies and leading truck manufacturers are open to the technology, but many remain critical or indifferent. The institute found that many international actors are waiting for a German government decision on the technology. Germany “is perceived as a key player to which other countries look for orientation,” it stressed. “Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, and the Netherlands perceive barriers to the technology if key countries like Germany do not make a clear political commitment to it.”