Hitachi ZeroCarbon, a division of Hitachi Europe Ltd., has been chosen as the principal partner in GRIDSERVE’s ‘Electric Freightway’ project which will see around 140 eHGVs integrated into a charging network across 15 motorway charging sites and more than 10 commercial depot charging locations.
Hitachi ZeroCarbon’s project role will provide high-quality data and deliver validated insights from battery electric HGV’s operating in the real-world over a five-year period. This will involve analysing routes, vehicle and charging session data including the optimisation of battery health, range and charging infrastructure monitoring, and evidence-based Total Cost of Ownership modelling to support investment business cases for future eHGV deployments.
Hitachi ZeroCarbon will bring its extensive knowledge from the Optimise Prime project, which included partners Royal Mail and Uber, and looked at solutions to enable networks and fleet operators prepare for the transition to commercial electric vehicles. The data architecture for the project will be based on Lumada, Hitachi’s advanced digital solutions, services and technologies platform, which will be leveraged to gather data and provide learning, insights and data sets which will inform future eHGV UK strategy.
The aim of the Electric Freightway project, which is taking place from July 2023 and running until 2025, is to test and show that eHGVs are ready to replace diesel HGVs and can continue to 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 without government policies, grants, and subsidies.
Ram Ramachander, Chief Executive of Hitachi ZeroCarbon said, “Hitachi is committed to being a climate change innovator, and this means bringing ournext-generation technologies and strong sector expertise to the Electric Freightway project. Freight transport is a large contributor to global CO2 emissions, so decarbonising the sector is vital to meet net zero targets. We are looking forward to working alongside GRIDSERVE and the wider consortium to showcase the technologies that exist today which will help deliver a zero-carbon future”.
The consortium of 33 Partner and Member companies 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.
Andrew Barr, President of Hitachi Europe Ltd., said: “Decarbonisation of the heavy goods sector is a crucial component of the electrification of the entire transport sector. EMEA is leading the way with decarbonisation programmes and with our knowledge of energy, mobility and digital, combined with learnings from Optimise Prime, Hitachi can play a unique role in reshaping how goods are transported across Europe and beyond.”
