Project Electric Freightway

GRIDSERVE is leading a consortium supported by Hitachi ZeroCarbon, part of Hitachi Europe, to deliver Electric Heavy Goods Vehicles (eHGV) and dedicated eHGV charging infrastructure along the UK's strategic road network. The consortium also includes HGV fleet operators & hauliers (e.g., Amazon, Kuehne+Nagel, Maritime Transport, etc.), automotive OEMs (Volvo Trucks, Renault Trucks, Leyland DAF), vehicle leasing companies (e.g. Novuna, and other OEM financial services companies) and landowners (including DCC, British Land and Motorway Service Areas (MSAs) such as MOTO).

GRIDSERVE already provides publicly available charging infrastructure for cars and vans at 85% of MSAs and its own Electric Forecourts, the first of which at Braintree was achieved with part funding from Innovate UK. The team are perfectly placed to expand a first class infrastructure at strategic locations. Hitachi ZeroCarbon, as the lead integrator for the Ofgem Optimise Prime project -- the world's largest commercial EV trial involving over 8,000 vehicles, is an expert in data collation and analysis of the impact of implementing electric vehicle fleets and the optimisation of charging and battery performance. Alongside our consortium partners, GRIDSERVE represents a powerful group able to deliver a successful battery eHGV demonstration and accelerate the migration to electric truck fleets in the UK.

Our initial demonstration will be a full-scale, working implementation of 140 electric 40-44T eHGVs across several truck fleets operating on real business routes across a variety of use cases, including national long-haul routes along core motorway networks, regional distribution across multiple sites and local multi-shift goods movements on site. Whilst this is an initial demonstration, the infrastructure built will be the basis for the UK’s transition to zero emissions transport.

To facilitate these varied operations, GRIDSERVE will implement a variety of charging solutions including truck charging bays in at least 15 MSA lorry parks, 2 truck stop locations and more than 10 charging hubs at strategic locations (e.g. close to haulier depots). In all cases, charging can be a mix of High Power (up to 1MW) charging on short dwell times during driver tacho breaks, for example, whilst on a long route; or Low Power (around 50kW) for overnight charging at depots, hubs or MSAs. Apart from on some depot sites, this charging infrastructure will be available to other eHGV hauliers and drivers of larger vehicles. Hitachi ZeroCarbon will analyse vehicle and charging session data to generate project outcomes, including the optimisation of battery health, electric HGV fleet and charging infrastructure, and evidence-based TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) modelling to support investment business cases for future eHGV deployments. Hitachi ZeroCarbon will work with Innovate UK, DfT, KTN, Zemo Partnership, BSi and others to disseminate these outcomes to the wider market.