Gridserve Announce World's Most Advanced HGV Charging Network

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An industry-led initiative has been unveiled, with the ambitious goal of establishing one of the world's largest and most advanced electric heavy goods vehicle (HGV) charging networks. Gridserve's "Electric Freightway" project will encompass the integration of approximately 140 electric HGVs into a charging network spanning 15 motorway charging sites and more than 10 commercial depot charging locations.

This project is one of four trials, receiving a portion of £200 million in government funding, dedicated to deploying up to 370 zero-emission HGVs. The Electric Freightway project is set to run until 2025, aiming to demonstrate the readiness of electric HGVs to replace diesel HGVs while maintaining the same level of service when the requisite infrastructure, systems, processes, and business models are in place.

The project seeks to quantify the total cost of ownership for electric trucks compared to their diesel counterparts without relying on government policies, grants, and subsidies. Hitachi ZeroCarbon's role in the project will involve providing high-quality data and delivering validated insights based on the real-world operation of battery electric HGVs over a five-year period.

This includes the analysis of routes, vehicle and charging session data, with a focus on optimizing battery health, range, charging infrastructure monitoring, and evidence-based total cost of ownership modelling. These efforts will support business cases for future electric HGV deployments.

Hitachi ZeroCarbon will leverage its extensive knowledge from the Optimise Prime project, which involved partners such as Royal Mail and Uber, and aimed to facilitate the transition to commercial electric vehicles for networks and fleet operators. The project's data architecture will be built on Lumada, Hitachi's digital solutions, services, and technologies platform, which will be used to collect data and provide insights and datasets informing the future strategy for electric HGVs in the UK.

Ram Ramachander, CEO of Hitachi ZeroCarbon, expressed the company's commitment to being a climate change innovator, emphasizing the importance of decarbonizing the freight transport sector to achieve net-zero targets. He also noted the collaboration with Gridserve and the broader consortium to showcase existing technologies that can contribute to a zero-carbon future.

This consortium, comprising 33 partner and member companies, is part of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator Programme, funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

United Utilities is actively participating in the Electric Freightway project, employing electric vehicles at the company's Bioresources Centre in Manchester for the transportation of sewage sludge, a by-product of sewage treatment, from wastewater treatment facilities across the northwest for processing.

These vehicles will be charged at Davyhulme using renewable electricity generated on-site from processed sewage sludge. The biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion process powers a combined heat and power unit, converting it into 100% renewable energy for HGV charging points.

Tom Lissett, Bioresources and Green Energy Director at United Utilities, expressed excitement about this development and its significance in working toward their 100% green fleet and net-zero carbon objectives. He highlighted the efficiency of utilizing the energy generated by the sludge collection process to charge the vehicle batteries, which they have successfully trialed with one electric HGV.

Gridserve will oversee the installation of specialized charging points as part of the demonstrator, with the vehicles expected to be introduced in spring 2024. United Utilities will share their findings and data with other companies, contributing to the UK's transition to electric vehicles.

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