E.ON tests reservations for truck chargers

It is clear that battery-electric trucks need to be charged. Those who have their own charging points at their depot can use electric trucks for many routes in distribution transport around their own location. However, for longer distances or even flexible routes, intermediate charging stops are necessary along the way. E.ON has already set up several charging parks with truck-compatible parking spaces for this purpose, for example, in cooperation with MAN.

However, the energy company’s experience to date shows that it is not only the availability of electric truck charging stations that is important, but also that the planning and reliability of charging stops remain a key challenge for transport companies and drivers. “Orders and delivery times are tightly scheduled in logistics, so vehicles should not stand still any longer than necessary. Our reservation system is designed to solve precisely this challenge,” says Arjan van der Eijk, Managing Director at E.ON Drive Infrastructure. “By booking charging points in advance, we ensure that electric trucks will not have to wait for a free charging station in the future – at the same time, we enable drivers to charge during their statutory rest breaks. With our application, we want to make it easier for fleet operators to get started with electric road freight transport and sustainably advance the mobility transition in this relevant area.”

Charging stops can be planned before or during the tour, by the driver themselves or by employees from the logistics company’s dispatch department. A web app (mobile or computer) can be used to select the planned start time for charging, and the system then automatically calculates a tolerance of 15 minutes. “The charging station is blocked exclusively during the reservation window and is only available to the person who made the reservation. Upon arrival, the driver unlocks the charging station in the reservation web app,” explains E.ON.

The reservation is only blocked for the 15-minute window. If a booked charging station is not used, the reservation expires after the grace period so that it can be made available to other customers. If arrival is delayed due to traffic congestion or other events, the charging stop can be rescheduled at short notice with a new 15-minute window. The same applies if the entire route changes and a different location is visited.

As part of the pilot project, the system will initially be launched at individual locations. The first reservable charging stations are located at the MAN Service Centre in Karlsfeld (near Munich, close to the A99 motorway), where E.ON has installed four Alpitronic HYC400 hyperchargers. “Further locations will follow,” says E.ON, but does not yet name any names. The initial aim is to gather experience with the system with transport companies as test users and to adapt it if necessary before a larger rollout takes place. The energy company’s stated vision is a comprehensive reservation system for electric truck charging stations.

The truck reservation system is being tested in parallel with the pilot operation as part of a co-innovation project at the UnternehmerTUM start-up centre at the Technical University of Munich in collaboration with other industry partners. “In cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, the main aim is to promote the integration of additional partners and solutions via technical interfaces,” said Lioudmila Simon, Vice President E-Mobility Innovation at E.ON Group Innovation. “The goal is to jointly develop an open, scalable reservation system that will eventually include a large number of charging point operators from the truck sector in order to provide comprehensive reservation services for electric truck drivers.”

However, truck chargers are not the first project in which E.ON has toyed with the idea of a reservation function. Back in 2023, the group tested an electric car solution called ChargeQ for company employees, which allowed them to use their smartphones to add themselves to a digital waiting list for a charging point. The system proved so successful that ChargeQ was incorporated into a larger consortium project for public charging in December 2024.

eon.de (in German)

This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition