Conti and Siemens cooperate on eHighway pantographs
The development and production service provider Continental Engineering Services (CES) and Siemens Mobility have entered into a cooperation for the development and manufacturing of pantographs for trucks. The goal is to electrify key routes in the highway network with an overhead line system and thus significantly reduce the CO2 emissions of truck traffic, as stipulated by EU regulation 2019/1242, according to the automotive supplier. The new partnership aims to combine expertise from two technological worlds, with Siemens Mobility as a specialist in rail electrification and Continental Engineering Services as a development and production service provider for sophisticated automotive technologies. Both companies are now pooling their know-how to promptly realize series production of pantographs and make them available for widespread use in Europe. The eHighway technology supplies trucks with electric drives, such as hybrid trucks, fuel cell trucks, or battery-electric trucks, with power via an overhead line on heavily frequented highway sections. The trucks can then drive completely electrically and simultaneously charge their batteries without consuming fuel.
“We are transferring the principle of rail electrification to the road. The pantographs are being further developed and manufactured according to automotive standards. The partnership between Continental Engineering Services and Siemens Mobility enables a major step towards climate-neutral freight transport,” outlines Christoph Falk-Gierlinger, Managing Director of CES.
The eHighway technology developed by Siemens Mobility is already ready for use today. Now, the task is to further develop the pantographs for trucks so that they can be offered to commercial vehicle manufacturers cost-effectively and in any desired quantity.
“Road freight transport plays a central role in the fight against climate change,” says Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility.
In Germany, it causes one-third of the CO2 emissions in the transport sector. Among the various concepts for reduction, Siemens Mobility has created a technology with the eHighway for energy-efficient, cost-effective, and emission-free truck transport that can be combined with other drives and could become the backbone of the climate change turnaround in road freight transport, Peter continues.
Rail Principle: Power from Overhead Lines on 4,000 Kilometers of Highway
The crucial aspect of the eHighway is that not all highway kilometers need to be electrified. The “National Platform for the Future of Mobility,” an innovation initiative of the Federal Ministry of Transport, recommends equipping 4,000 kilometers of highway with overhead line technology by 2030. About two-thirds of the fuel consumption in long-distance truck traffic on German highways occurs on the most frequented 4,000 kilometers of the 13,000-kilometer-long highway network.
“If it succeeds in electrifying the core network and easily supplying trucks with electric drives - battery, hybrid, hydrogen - and integrated pantographs with power during driving, a significant contribution to climate protection can quickly be achieved,” believes the provider.
The solution with power from overhead lines corresponds to the rail principle. There, too, only about 60 percent of the rail network is equipped with overhead lines. However, these are the key routes, so more than 90 percent of rail traffic in Germany rolls over the tracks with power from overhead lines. According to a study by the Federal Ministry of Transport, electrifying the German road freight transport on a core network of 4,000 kilometers would make it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by ten to twelve million tons annually if the power is obtained from renewable sources.
Three Public Test Routes in Trial
In Germany, the eHighway by Siemens Mobility is currently being tested on three public test routes: on the federal highway A5 in Hesse between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City South junction of Frankfurt Airport and Darmstadt/Weiterstadt, in Schleswig-Holstein on the A1 between the Reinfeld junction and the Lübeck motorway interchange, and on the federal road B462 in Baden-Württemberg between Kuppenheim and Gaggenau. The goal of CES and Siemens Mobility is to make the truck overhead line system available across Europe. The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure supports the scaling of overhead lines for long-distance transport in so-called innovation clusters and intends to realize large pilot facilities by 2023.
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