Traton : On the line

Three factors are critical for success

Whether the technology makes it from the test phase to an infrastructure project depends primarily on three factors. The first is the interaction between the overhead line technology and the battery. After every trip, the drivers record how well they managed to couple with the overhead line even in heavy traffic, and how long the battery charge lasted after that. "The data is important for two reasons," says Stefan Ziegert. "We need it for traffic research, which is being conducted with the support of the Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt among others, but it's also useful for Scania as a manufacturer. Ultimately, the hybrid trucks are still prototypes that we are constantly working to improve." One question, for instance, is the size of the battery required to cover the largest possible number of electric driving applications in the given infrastructure. Because batteries have an ecological footprint too, the following guideline applies: as big as necessary, but as small as possible.

The second factor is economic efficiency. "Right now, the variable costs would be several times higher compared with diesel," Scania expert Ziegert points out. But with advances in battery technology, as he anticipates, the vehicles would then become more economical. "I am firmly convinced that we will have a completely different ecosystem in terms of the battery cells over the course of the next decade. With greater capacity and faster charging, exciting developments are in store with this topic."

The third factor is investments required by the public sector. According to a study by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment - which is financing the test section - an overhead line would only need to be installed on selected routes in Germany. If would suffice to electrify the most heavily used 4,000 kilometers of the almost 12,300 kilometers of autobahn. That's because more than 60 percent of all ton kilometers driven on German highways can be attributed to precisely these sections.