Daimler, Traton and Volvo to build a European charging network for heavy-duty trucks

Three of Europe’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers—Daimler Truck, the Volvo Group, and the Traton Group (owner of the Scania, MAN and Navistar brands)—have signed a non-binding agreement to build a public charging network for battery-electric heavy-duty long-haul trucks and coaches across Europe.

The agreement lays the foundation of a future joint venture, which is to start operations in 2022. The three firms plan to invest a total of 500 million euros to install and operate at least 1,700 charging points close to highways and at logistic and destination points, within five years.

The new charging network will be open and accessible to all commercial vehicles in Europe, regardless of brand.

“It is the joint aim of Europe’s truck manufacturers to achieve climate neutrality by 2050,” said Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum. “However, it is vital that building up the right infrastructure goes hand in hand with putting CO2-neutral trucks on the road.”

“It is clear that the future of transport is electric,” said Traton CEO Matthias Gründler. “This requires the rapid development of publicly accessible charging points, especially for long-distance heavy-duty transport. We now make the first step to accelerate the transition towards sustainable, fossil-free transport. The second step should be a strong engagement of the EU for the full scale-up of a charging network across Europe.”

“We are laying the necessary foundation to make the transformation to electrification by creating a European charging network leader,” said Volvo Group CEO Martin Lundstedt. “We have powerful electromobility technologies, and now also an industry-wide understanding as well as a political environment to make fundamental progress towards sustainable transport and infrastructure solutions.”

Source: Daimler Truck

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