Skip to main content

This electric highway for trucks has its origins in the past

Siemens eHighway
Trains and trams have been powered by electricity for more than a hundred years, but only recently have serious moves been made to use the same technology for trucks on regular roads.

German engineering giant Siemens unveiled its eHighway concept for greener transportation back in 2012. The system comprises a hybrid truck that draws power from overhead electric cables for the bulk of its journey, switching to diesel power at the very start and end of a journey on smaller roads that don’t have the power lines.

Following a successful trial in Sweden, the system is now up and running on a 1.2-mile (2 km) stretch of road near Stockholm, while there are also plans to try it on several roads around Los Angeles.

Now Germany is getting interested, with Siemens announcing a plan to install the system on a 6-mile (10 km) stretch of the nation’s autobahn near Frankfurt.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although electric cars are starting to gain traction, the much heavier weight carried by trucks means they require more energy to operate, and battery technology isn’t up to the job yet. Siemens has overcome this with an external system that provides the truck with power as it drives along.

The key part of Siemen’s eHighway system is the extendable power coupler on the top of the trucks that connects to a power line running above one lane of the highway. “Trucks equipped with the system operate locally emission-free with electricity from the overhead line, and automatically switch to a hybrid engine on roads without overhead lines,” the company explains. The coupler can also disconnect on the highway and temporarily switch to diesel power if it needs to overtake a slower vehicle. Once it returns to the lane with the power line overhead, the coupler automatically reconnects and the truck reverts to electric power.

Gerd Riegelhuth, head of transport at Hessen Mobil, responsible for road management in and around Frankfurt, said that construction of the system will “demonstrate the feasibility of integrating overhead contact systems with a public highway,” adding, “The system will be used for real transport networks, and prove the practicality of climate-neutral freight transport in the urban region of Frankfurt.”

Siemens says its eHighway is “twice as efficient compared to internal combustion engines” and therefore helps to significantly reduce energy consumption and cut local air pollution.

Germany has pledged to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 80 to 95 percent by 2050, and is targeting 2030 as the final date for new sales of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles. Expanding the use of Siemens’ eHighway could also go some way to helping the country achieve its green ambitions.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
VW previews its next electric car in trippy camouflaged form
Front three quarter view of a camouflaged Volkswagen ID.7 prototype.

The Volkswagen ID.7 is VW's next electric car, and while it won't be fully revealed until later in the year, the automaker provided a sneak peek at CES 2023.

VW said the production ID.7, which will be revealed in the second quarter of this year, will be influenced by the ID.Aero concept first shown in China in 2022. The camouflaged prototype VW brought to CES has the same general shape as the ID.Aero. It's a streamlined sedan that VW claims will have up to 435 miles of range as measured on the somewhat lenient European WLTP testing cycle.

Read more
Elon Musk delivers Tesla’s first all-electric Semi truck
Elon Musk driving Tesla's all-electric Semi truck.

Tesla Semi Delivery Event

He’s a busy man, Elon Musk. Fresh from causing chaos at Twitter, which he acquired recently, and just hours after offering an update on his Neuralink neuroscience, the billionaire entrepreneur drove Tesla’s first Semi production vehicle to a delivery event at the automaker’s Nevada Gigafactory on Thursday night.

Read more
GMC poured all of its truck-making expertise into the Sierra EV pickup
A 2024 GMC Sierra EV towing an Airstream trailer.

The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks are twins, and that will continue to be the case when they go electric.
Chevy unveiled its Silverado EV at CES 2022, and now it’s GMC’s turn. The 2024 GMC Sierra EV borrows some key features from its Chevy sibling, as well GMC’s first electric truck — the Hummer EV. Some of those features were actually pioneered by General Motors two decades ago on non-electric trucks, and are now making a comeback.
You can reserve a Sierra EV now, but deliveries aren’t scheduled to start until early calendar-year 2024. Production starts with a high-end Denali Edition 1 model, with other versions arriving for the 2025 model year.

Design
The Sierra EV updates the design language of the internal-combustion GMC Sierra for the electric age. A big grille is no longer needed for cooling, but it’s still an important styling element that designers didn’t want to break away from, Sharon Gauci, GMC executive director of global design, explained to Digital Trends and other media in an online briefing ahead of the truck’s reveal. The grille shape is now outlined in lights, with an illuminated GMC logo.
Like the Hummer EV and Silverado EV, the Sierra EV uses GM’s Ultium modular battery architecture which, among other things, means the battery pack is an integral part of the structure. So unlike most other trucks — including the rival Ford F-150 Lightning — the Sierra EV doesn’t have a separate frame. The cab and bed are one piece as well, all of which helps increase structural rigidity.
The Sierra EV also borrows the Midgate setup from the Silverado EV. First seen on the Chevy Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT in the early 2000s, it allows the bulkhead and glass behind the cab to be removed, effectively extending the bed. Combined with the fold-out MultiPro tailgate from the internal-combustion Sierra, it can expand the default 5.0-foot, 11-inch bed length to 10 feet, 10 inches. A frunk (GMC calls it the “eTrunk”) provides covered storage space as well.
Because it’s pitched as a premium vehicle, the Sierra EV gets upscale interior materials like open-pore wood trim and stainless steel speaker grilles for its Bose audio system. But the design itself, with a freestanding portrait touchscreen and rectangular instrument cluster, looks suspiciously similar to the Ford Mustang Mach-E cabin. The touchscreen even has the same big volume knob as the Ford. We hope GMC’s lawyers are ready.

Read more