»From practice for practice«

Political debates and demands are important, as are technological developments and advances, but you must never lose sight of the practicalities and the user. This is precisely why I like to listen and talk to people. Recently, I was talking to Matthias, an eTruck driver who, like me, was able to charge his vehicle at an IONITY charging park. It was spontaneous and entertaining. At the time of the conversation, he had already been there for almost 20 minutes and the vehicle was being charged with approx. 220kW via CCS. Matthias talked – and he had a lot to say. From practical experience, what is good and what is not so good.

First of all: he loves ‘his’ eTruck, which is now about 1.5 years old. He drives it every day – long-distance transport. He raves about the enormous performance, especially on hills; he can’t stop grinning. But he also complains, and rightly so. The charging infrastructure for e-trucks, especially when he has his semi-trailer on board, is pathetic. Firstly, there is a lack of suitable charging points that would be more suitable for his route profile and secondly, most charging points are not designed for e-trucks with or without trailers. And he drives a lot with a trailer. It is also often well loaded. Over 40 tonnes in some cases and sometimes even hazardous goods. He would like an infrastructure that is more in line with his route. Another thing he criticised was the range, which fluctuates greatly depending on the load, weather and temperature and therefore varies from time to time.

The gap is large and so is the need for charging points. When we talked about megawatt charging, his eyes lit up. If that were possible, his charging times would be dramatically reduced. Then the shorter range would no longer be so important to him. But in combination with more range and then megawatt charging, that would be the breakthrough and everyone would only drive eTrucks, says Matthias.

This shows me once again that our BEM recommendations for action are right to the point and, above all, take the users with them. True to the motto: »From practice for practice«.

Yours, Markus Emmert