UK / Japan – As part of the GRIDSERVE’s ‘Electric Freightway’ project, Hitachi ZeroCarbon, a division of Hitachi Europe Ltd (a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd of Tokyo, Japan) has been contracted to build 140 electric heavy-duty vehicle charging stations across 15 motorway charging sites and ten commercial depot charging locations across the UK. Furthermore, Hitachi will collect and manage data gathered from charging sessions to optimise charging, route planning and the battery health of HGVs over the next five years. The data will be collated to provide “evidence-based total cost of ownership modelling to support investment business cases for future eHGV deployments.” This will aid in helping fleet operators prepare for the transition to commercial electric vehicles.

The Electric Freightway project consists of 33 partners and member companies, taking place from July 2023 and running until 2025. The aim is to test and show that eHGVs are ready to replace diesel HGVs and can deliver the same service when the right infrastructure, systems, processes, and business models are deployed. The project aims to quantify the total cost of ownership for eHGVs relative to their diesel counterparts. The project is part of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator Programme and is funded by the Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.