The 12th International Sustainable Road Freight Workshop brought together academics and transport operators to discuss insights on the decarbonisation of freight. From projects in the UK and Europe to research in China, India and the US, speakers provided a range of different perspectives on the transition.
Trinity Francis
Hosted at the University of Cambridge, the first day of the two day conference saw representatives from ZEHID and other UK-based projects share updates. Lowri Williams, Transport Systems Practice Manager, at Energy Systems Catapult presented on behalf of the eFREIGHT 2030 consortium.
After explaining the research aims of eFREIGHT 2030, Williams delved into outputs of the project. “We are releasing a tool which we’re calling a financial assessment tool, rather than a TCO calculator, because it goes beyond the vehicles and charging infrastructure.
“It looks at things like project costs behind the meter, storage and generation and how those can impact and influence the TCO of the vehicles to bring that broader cost picture into view. As well as looking at different finance mechanisms and payback periods.”
Using ESME Road Freight national modelling, Williams explained how the research explored what the eHGV market could look like between now and 2050 based on different incentives.
“There’s a lot of evidence that for the smaller vehicles, TCO can stack up much more quickly than it can for the larger, most emitting vehicles. We tried a few different things, one of which was targeted incentives, so as TCO parity was achieved for smaller vehicles, shifting the money that would be spent on those incentives to the larger vehicles. We saw that really pulled forward uptake of the zero emission vehicles in the heaviest segment,” Williams said.
Modelling showed greater incentives for long haul trucks could accelerate eHGV uptake by around five years. The research also suggested that HGVs travelling more than 400km on a daily basis will likely see eHGV uptake peak between 2040 and 2045 compared to lower mileage trucks which are expected to experience large adoption from 2030 to 2035.
Williams continued, “A similar thing was seen when we looked at introducing a carbon tax on fossil fuels used in HGVs. This was set up in a way that for a sector that bought the most fossil fuels, they got back the most incentive.
“The way that played out is for those larger vehicles that do the most miles, they got a bigger incentive when it came to the eHGVs, and that drove uptake earlier. I believe that was the only scenario where the seventh carbon budget was able to be reached.”
Alongside detailed TCO modelling, the project has also conducted in-depth infrastructure analysis for eHGV requirements. “We did case studies on three specific locations that are in the eFREIGHT 2030 project and we were looking at how things like smart charging, on site solar generation, flexible connections, battery storage and the future growth of the eHGV fleet could impact what systems might look like,” Williams explained.
Using a co-location optimisation tool, the team looked at the cost benefit of installing on site energy generation and storage. Williams said, “As the grid connection size becomes more constrained, there becomes an increased role for installing generation and storage which was uniform across the three sites we were modelling.”
Where fleets will typically charge away from the depot, the study found less of a requirement for solar and battery storage but Williams noted fleets need to consider vehicle dwell times at depot to effectively plan infrastructure installations.
While most charging infrastructure concepts focus on depot-based or public charging hubs, the workshop also heard from researchers exploring alternative solutions. Research from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight at the University of Cambridge explored the cost benefit of electric road systems (ERS) including overhead, wireless and in-road dynamic charging.
The team found that ERS on strategic road networks would require fewer, larger grid connections which would be easier to install. The study also concluded that looking at the total logistics cost, rather than just TCO, ERS can be profitable and support cheaper logistics costs for operators.
More closely related to eFREIGHT 2030’s activities, academics in Sweden have been experimenting with electrified trailers. Slightly different from UK-permitted configurations, the REEL project uses a three axle rigid paired with a five axle electrified trailer which is equipped with a 360kWh battery and a 195kW driven axle. Data so far suggests eHGVs can increase range by up to 60% with the electrified trailer and fuel consumption is reduced by up to 40% when the trailer is paired with a diesel truck.
As well as sharing updates on specific projects, the majority of speakers were keen to emphasise the importance of collaboration and eliminating silo working. While we often hear about hauliers partnering with each other, speakers highlighted the interconnected nature of logistics between factors like ports, warehouses, rail terminals, CPOs, DNOs, customers and local, national and international authorities.