Construction of the 'eHighway' on German soil will start next year. By 2019, the first special trucks will be running on electricity from overhead lines. Hesse's Green Minister of Economics, Tarek Al-Wazir, gave the symbolic go-ahead for the project in Frankfurt on December 18, 2017.

The test track is being built between the Langen/Mörfelden and Weiterstadt junctions. It is around 5 km long and will be electrified in both directions next year. According to the transport authority Hessen mobil, three haulage companies have so far agreed to test the route with one truck each, and talks are underway with two other companies. The pilot project is being financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, which is covering the entire cost of almost 15 million euros.

The technology was developed by Siemens and tested on a former military training area in Brandenburg. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, two further test tracks are being built outside of Hesse: on the A1 near Lübeck and on a federal highway in Baden-Württemberg. Siemens has already implemented an 'eHighway' in Sweden: An overhead line system for electric and hybrid trucks has been undergoing testing north of Stockholm since June 2016 - the details in the picture gallery:

How the 'eHighway' works

As on railroad lines, electricity pylons must be erected along the road. If the sensors in the roof of the truck detect an overhead line, the collectors are extended. The electric motor is supplied with electricity and the battery is charged at the same time. This allows the truck to continue driving electrically after undocking. If the battery is exhausted, the hybrid engine can continue to run on diesel.

"The aim is to make delivery traffic more environmentally friendly," says Gertrud Sahler from the Federal Ministry for the Environment. "It's not enough to electrify private transport." In addition to the strategy of shifting as much freight transport as possible to rail, freight transport by road must also become as climate-neutral as possible.

"Whether the overhead line truck is the future is completely open," says Frank Huster, Managing Director of the German Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association. There are too many unanswered questions, such as how dense the overhead line network would be and whether the purchase of the trucks would be economically viable. The association has no preference for any particular technology, but would "prefer to use a completely emission-free truck today rather than tomorrow."