Collaboration in sustainable FVL
Nissan collaborates on eTruck charging infrastructure in UK, invests £1.4m
Nissan’s e-truck charging station, which the OEM invested £1.4m ($1.9m) into, has gone live in Sunderland, UK. Nissan is looking at sharing the charging station with other logistics providers.
The electric truck infrastructure project is a first in the UK’s automotive industry, establishing an end-to-end supply chain that transports inbound goods to the plant from as far as Derby and delivers finished vehicles to and from the Port of Tyne.
Capable of powering up to ten eHGVs simultaneously, the station will support 60 eHGV deliveries to the plant daily, and will have a charging capacity of up to 360kW for a fleet of 25 trucks that will travel more than 2.4m km per year, saving around 1,500 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The project is part of the Electric Freightway, a consortium led by EV charging network Gridserve and including Fergusons, Yusen and BCA. The consortium is part of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme, funded by the UK government and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK to meet the 2040 deadline of zero emission HGVs. The £100m group includes £62.7m of UK government support.
The pioneer project highlights the funding and cooperation required in boosting electrification within automotive inbound and finished vehicle logistics, through setting up the infrastructure needed to make e-trucks viable as a transport mode at scale. This type of investment and partnership, as well as government backing, is something that leaders from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and ARS Altmann recently called for in a discussion moderated by Automotive Logistics. The panellists, including Thomas Wiech, head of transport planning and steering for vehicle distribution at BMW Group, and Anouck Arnaud, director of worldwide transport at Mercedes-Benz, asked for government officials to recognise and invest in solutions for infrastructure challenges and regulations that are roadblocks to greener logistics and e-trucks in particular.
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In a move to collaborate with the rest of the automotive supply chain, Nissan is also looking at sharing the charging station in the UK with other logistics providers. Speaking about the Sunderland charging project, Michael Simpson, vice-president of supply chain management for Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania (AMIEO) at Nissan said: “We welcome the support we’ve received from our partners to bring the charging station to life and we’re proud of what we have achieved.” He added: “We’re exploring further opportunities to allow other hauliers to use the charging station as well as looking at other opportunities to maximise its full potential.”
Daniel Kunkel, CEO of Gridserve said: “The decarbonisation of transport logistics is much stronger and reaches far wider when done in partnership. That is why, as leaders of the Electric Freightway consortium, we are so pleased to support this UK first with Nissan and their haulage partners. Depot charging is critical for the electrification of HGVs, going hand in hand with future public infrastructure developments. As a first shared usage site, this location is leading the way in sustainable freight logistics.”
Lilian Greenwood, UK government minister for the future of roads, said the government is working closely with the road freight sector to reduce emissions, adding: “It’s great to see Nissan taking advantage of our scheme which is supporting high paid jobs and putting money in the pockets of working people, all part of delivering our plan for change.”
The consortium is aiming to create more than 10 commercial depot charging locations for eHGVs with 200 chargers capable of delivering 350kW, and around 140 eHGVs to be used by UK-based companies on the network.
