Three automakers are teaming up to tackle the lack of battery charging infrastructure in Europe, a major impediment to widescale acceptance of electric vehicles.
On Monday, Volvo Group, Daimler Truck and Volkswagen’s heavy-truck subsidiary Traton Group said in a statement that they plan to form a joint venture to build a charging network designed specifically for electric long-haul trucks and buses across Europe.
The trio will jointly invest 500 million euros ($593 million) in the venture, which is scheduled to get up and running next year, with plans to install at least 1,700 charging points near highways and at logistics hubs within five years, according to the statement. The three carmakers will have equal shares in the venture, which will be based in Amsterdam.
Each charger in the planned network will feature technology that allows electric trucks to fully charge their vehicles’ batteries in 45 minutes, the same length of time European truckers are obliged to rest for every four and a half hours of driving, the Financial Times reported, citing the three carmakers’ chief executives.
The partnership could be seen as the trio’s effort to drive their own sales of electric trucks as the European Union has unveiled plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and become a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
European car industry association ACEA has estimated that 50,000 high-performance charging points are needed in Europe for heavy-duty vehicles by 2030.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)
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