Exploring public charging infrastructure requirements for short-haul electric trucks

Vehicle electrification has the potential to revolutionize transport systems globally by enabling a pathway toward lower-cost, zero-emission transport options. Heavy vehicles are poised to potentially be one of the greatest beneficiaries due to their high operating costs. Here a facility location problem approach is adopted to analyze a sample of deidentified truck trip data, providing initial insights into charging network configurations that could support a short-haul electric truck fleet using the case study of South East Queensland. The charging network scenarios include up to 10 optimally-located public sites. The results suggest that a relatively modest public charging network should be sufficient to support the majority of short-haul electric trucks operating in similar regions internationally, in line with other studies that have found that the majority of short-haul electric truck charging is likely to be carried out at depots. Additionally, in outlining limitations of this study, we highlight the need for greater cooperation between researchers, policy-makers and industry to secure access to high-resolution truck trip data to more accurately plan regional charging networks, and freight decarbonization more broadly.