Despite the progress of electromobility, charging infrastructure remains a concern in some places. However, the energy transition is also advancing in the heavy commercial vehicle sector. Scania Switzerland, together with a well-known transport company in Sargans, is addressing this issue.

Electrifying heavy commercial vehicles and using them for everyday purposes is one thing. Providing the necessary energy and charging infrastructure is another. What takes politicians years, if not decades, to achieve, the transport provider Käppeli Logistik, in close collaboration with Scania Switzerland, planned, implemented, and commissioned within months.

In autumn 2020, Scania CV AB first presented its future Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) strategy, designed for urban transport with battery capacities of 290 kWh and ranges of 220 to 300 km. Just a few months later, Swiss customers were able to thoroughly test three different vehicle concepts and experience firsthand on their own delivery routes that e-mobility at Scania was already well advanced and in use in many locations.

Photos: Scania

In June 2022, Scania presented the next step. The new model range already offers battery capacities of 624 kWh and is available in combination with R and S cabs. The new charging capacity is up to 375 kWh, which equates to a one-hour charging time for an additional range of typically 270 to 300 km. For example, a 4x2 tractor unit with six batteries can travel between 350 and 400 kilometers on a full battery charge at an average speed of 80 km/h.

Mike Ritter, Managing Director of Käppeli Logistik in Sargans, recognized early on that electromobility wouldn't be limited to passenger cars, but that heavy commercial vehicles could also be fully electric in the long run. Therefore, starting in 2021, every new vehicle purchase was reviewed to determine which commercial vehicles could be acquired with a purely electric drive and where this wasn't yet economically viable. Each offer was meticulously examined, and available test vehicles underwent initial operational and stress tests to gain firsthand experience with the battery-electric vehicles currently available on the market. Based on this experience, the first battery-electric vehicles were ordered and put into service for the company's own fleet. A deliberately small battery capacity was chosen, both to ensure sustainability and to fully explore the limits of their suitability for regional tipper truck transport.

To avoid unexpected surprises when deploying the first battery electric vehicles (BEVs), the drivers were carefully introduced to their transport tasks. Day by day, their work became more intensive, with steadily increasing distances. This necessitated the installation of a dedicated, temporary EV charging infrastructure with its own transformer at the company's depot, ensuring a constant and sufficient energy supply. As the operating range of the vehicles expanded, Käppeli's management increasingly realized that the real challenge wasn't the availability of electric trucks, but rather ensuring that the BEVs had a reliable and sufficient energy supply at all times, depending on their area of ​​operation and driving distances.

The idea of ​​planning and implementing the first public e-truck charging infrastructure in Switzerland soon took shape. Mike Ritter was clear about one thing from the start: waiting for politicians to plan, initiate, and then implement such a project would take far too long. Consequently, discussions were held with existing BEV vehicle manufacturers, and solutions were sought together. Scania Switzerland was receptive to his proposal, and joint discussions explored ways to create a dedicated e-truck charging infrastructure and establish the first public e-truck charging park.

To maximize the potential of this project and avoid starting from scratch, a trip to the Scania plant in Södertälje was undertaken. This allowed the team to leverage the expertise of Scania's parent company and conduct initial test drives with a pre-production Scania BEV 3.0 for national long-haul transport with a gross vehicle weight of 60 tons. As a crowning achievement, the first electric vehicle charging park in Sweden was visited near Malmö to gather further ideas and inspiration for the project back in Switzerland. Simultaneously, planning, obtaining building permits, and initial construction work for a new transformer station have already begun.

Back from Sweden, things moved quickly again, with the aim of adapting what had been heard and seen to their own needs and taking further steps towards realizing and obtaining official approval for their own public e-truck charging park. Here, too, it soon became clear that while the commercial vehicle industry had done its homework in recent months and years, the next challenge lay in the availability of the necessary charging infrastructure and connection capacity to the existing power grid. Currently, delivery times of several months for charging infrastructure are normal, while the delivery of power electronics or even transformer stations can take up to 18 months.

The symbolic groundbreaking ceremony took place at the end of April, much to everyone's delight. Soon, the first battery-powered vehicles will be able to draw their energy in Sargans at maximum charging speed.

www.scania.ch

www.kaeppeli.ch