Siemens installed a two-kilometer overhead electric power line designed to power the trucks on the eHighway north of Stockholm and trhe company expects its technology to “prove itself in practice” there by 2018.
eHighway is a low-emission system developed by Siemens for heavily populated short-haul truck routes. It includes intelligent pantographs to pick up current.
A sensor system enables the pantograph to automatically make and break contact with the overhead line at speeds up to 90kph.
When an overhead line is present, the trucks generate zero local emissions, while on non-equipped roads, they switch back to conventional fuels.
Siemens says that an eHighway runs at about 80% efficiency – about twice that of a diesel truck – because electric motors are themselves more efficient.
The eHighway’s energy efficiency increases even further if the trucks recycle electric braking energy back to the supply network.
Siemens has been working on the technology for eHighways since 2011. As part of the ENUBA 1 research project for electromobility of heavy-duty utility vehicles, Siemens developed its electric catenary-wire based system for heavy-duty utility vehicles, and ran feasibility trials on a test track north of Berlin.
On ENUBA 2, Siemens has been working with Scania to develop a concept for electric, catenary-wire based operation of heavy utility vehicles.
For this second research project, a bigger test track was initiated in Groß Dölln, mimicking real world road conditions.