eHighway Germany
Siemens Mobility’s eHighway technology supplies electricity to the trucks on the highway. Credit: © Siemens.

A consortium of Siemens Mobility and SPL Powerlines Germany has finished installing an eHighway system on the Bundesstraße 462 (B 462) federal highway in Germany.

The eHighway system has now been officially opened on the stretch of road between Kuppenheim and Gaggenau.

Siemens Mobility’s eHighway technology supplies electricity to trucks on the highway through an overhead contact line to directly power the truck and charge its batteries.

The technology is currently being tested in three public field trials in Germany.

Siemens Mobility eHighway head Hasso Grünjes said: “The overhead contact line, which has proven itself on highway pilots, can serve as the backbone of climate-friendly freight transport on the road.

“Functioning as a dynamic charging infrastructure, the eHighway system supports various electric drive technologies and supplements stationary charging.

“The new system installed on the Murg Valley highway is an important milestone for proving the operational maturity of the system and for gaining further practical experience prior to a broader system roll-out

Similar pilot projects are underway on the A5 federal motorway between the Zeppelinheim and Cargo City South junction at the Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt and Weiterstadt junction.

A project is also being trialled on the A1 federal motorway between the Reinfeld junction and Lübeck interchange.

The eWayBW highway system in the Murg Valley will allow the overhead contact line technology to be tested for the first time on federal highways, which feature tight curves and bridges.

The National Platform for the Future of Mobility (NPM) has suggested installing overhead contact lines on 300km of motorways in Germany by 2023, electrifying a total of 4,000km by the end of 2030.

The move is expected to help the nation meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 40%.

In August 2017, the German state of Hesse appointed Siemens to build an overhead contact line for electrified freight transport on a 10km stretch of motorway.