30 New Loading Plazas for E-trucks in Belgium

Investors are planning almost 30 public loading plazas for trucks in Belgium over the next two years.

This article is an excerpt taken from the text written by Tobe Steel and Bas Kurstjens for De Tijd. You can read the original here: https://www.tijd.be/dossiers/de-verdieping/bijna-30-nieuwe-laadpleinen-voor-elektrische-vrachtwagens-in-belgie-komende-twee-jaar/10546846.html.

“Someone has to take the risk and make the first move.”
In the port of Antwerp, the final preparations are being made at the Ketenis truck park on the Left Bank for the festive opening of the first public charging park for electric trucks in Belgium in one month. The scoop is for Milence, an ESPORG member and joint venture of the European truck manufacturers Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Volkswagen subsidiary Traton. Shortly afterwards it is Goordijk’s turn, a car park on the other side of the Scheldt. It marks the start of what will become a charging station offensive.

A survey in the sector shows that public ultra-fast chargers for trucks are planned at almost 30 locations along highways and at logistics junctions over the next two years. In addition to Milence, which is developing a loading network for trucks throughout Europe, Fastned will also offer specific loading locations for heavy transport in Belgium, the company confirmed to De Tijd. The Waregem gas station operator G&V Energy Group also has an ambitious investment plan. Truck charging stations, with their higher capacities, allow drivers to recharge sufficiently during their mandatory rest periods for the remainder of their journey.

Driven by stricter emissions standards, the European automotive federation ACEA expects that there will be 40,000 electric trucks on European roads by next year and even 270,000 by 2030. The demand for it is also gradually picking up in our country. “In 2022, only 24 electric trucks were registered in Belgium, last year there were 113,” says Stéphane Jacobs, transport transition manager at the Flemish government. “We expect to have 200 to 300 new e-trucks this year.”

From Flanders to Switzerland
“The first transport companies that now use electric trucks do so mainly on predictable routes of typically 150 to 200 kilometers, with the option to charge at the location,” says industrial and logistics energy consultant Aldo Peeters of the consultancy Enersangi. ‘But various transporters are also planning electric transport over distances of more than 500 kilometers, for example from Flanders to Switzerland. Then loading en route comes into the picture.’

The sudden breakthrough of the e-truck
“For longer routes, it is still pioneering and you have to plan your charging stops well in advance,” says Peeters. ‘Compare it with someone who wanted to go on an adventure to the north of Italy ten years ago, when there were no fast chargers yet. Now there are fast chargers for passenger cars everywhere along the highways. That will also change very quickly for trucks.’

Because the sale of electric trucks has no chance without charging infrastructure, the European truck builders joined forces in the summer of 2022. With Milence they aim to develop a network of around 300 charging plazas throughout Europe by 2027. The company is investing half a billion euros to install around 1,700 charging points for trucks, often in places where there are also rest facilities.

Milence wants to provide an answer to the expected growing demand in the coming years by developing a robust charging network ‘also in Belgium’, says CEO Anja van Niersen. “In this way we will achieve a high utilization rate of our charging infrastructure, which will ultimately lead to profitability,” she says. “We are confident that we will get to that point quickly when we see what demand there is and how our recently opened charging sites are already being used.”

In addition to the first 30 charging points at the two Antwerp locations, Milence is also planning a first truck charging station in Ghent by the beginning of next year, on the Volvo Group site, next to the Schansakker exit on the R4. A spokesperson confirms that more Belgian projects are in preparation and will be communicated later.