French heavy EV charging poses €630mn challenge finds study

A collaborative study between a French DSO, VINCI Autoroutes and six European manufacturers has found that heavy electric vehicle (EV) roaming charging will require €630 million in infrastructure investment to meet increasing power demand needs.

Enedis, TotalEnergies, VINCI Autoroutes and several manufacturers – Iveco, MAN Truck & Bus France, Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Renault Trucks, Scania and Volvo Trucks – collaborated on the study to assess the needs and challenges of electrification of long-distance road freight transport and roaming charging on French roads.

Specifically, finds the study, Électrification de la mobilité lourde longue distance, roaming charging of heavy goods vehicles alone could represent, by 2035, an energy consumption of 3.5TWh/year and a power demand of 1.1GW at peak.

According to the study, this will need €630 million ($675.7 million) of infrastructure investments by 2035 to cover the roaming needs of electric cars and heavy goods vehicles.

Electrification needs to 2035

The study found that approximately 60 HTB/HTA transformation stations will need to be reinforced or created for the power network, based on the shared power requirements of heavy goods vehicles and light vehicles in each area.

Additionally, meeting the forecasted rise in power demand will require deployment of 10,000 charging points for long breaks and 2,200 for fast charging at 519 service and rest areas.

Have you read:
Californian tractors discharge power back to the grid
Open data tapped for EV charger status

However, deployment of infrastructure will reduce the number of available parking spaces for heavy goods vehicles, potentially resulting in land deficits.

While long-distance electric heavy goods vehicles will only account for 12.5% of the fleet in 2035, at least half of the heavy goods vehicle parking spaces will need to be equipped with charging points on a quarter of the road sections.

The study also goes on to point out an interest in pooling connections of charging infrastructures.

Charging needs on the network, it states, vary largely between major departures cars over the weekend and heavy goods vehicles over business days. Pooling connection between these uses is therefore an area of interest to be explored, so as to limit investments on the electricity network.

Recommendations

The study recommends to stakeholders in the sector, including public authorities, network managers, charging and road infrastructure operators, transporters and logisticians, heavy goods vehicle manufacturers and shippers, the following actions:

• Establish planning and a shared and enforceable roadmap, specifying the developments to be made on electricity networks and road infrastructures for 2027, 2030 and 2035, consistent with future regulations
• Establish regulatory, administrative and financial mechanisms to anticipate work requests, accelerate administrative procedures and optimise shared investments in the areas, by specifying the role and responsibilities of each actor
• Establish simple and coherent incentive measures with long-term visibility, to encourage private investment in the development of battery-electric heavy goods vehicles and in charging infrastructure

According to Enedis, in France road transport today represents 90% of goods flows and 7% of greenhouse gas emissions.

To meet the decarbonisation objectives set by public authorities, manufacturers have committed to the development of battery-electric heavy goods vehicles, the success of which relies on appropriate deployment of infrastructure for roaming charging.

The study, carried out and announced in September 2023 , is based on modelling of the road network as well as the analysis of flows, stopping points for heavy goods vehicles and the electrification of the fleet by 2035 in France.