As anyone who currently drives an electric vehicle knows, charging away from home can be a tricky business. Yes, there are more than 35,000 public charge points in the UK, but you can’t always find one that’s a) working, b) isn’t occupied by a car with an internal combustion engined (known as ICEd), or c) doesn’t have a queue of EVs with impatient drivers waiting to charge.

It can be a frustrating exercise, so imagine what it will be like for early adopter electric truck drivers, vital elements of complex supply chains with delivery schedules to meet.

Currently, electric trucks can manage a range of about 250-300 km, but these are the early days of eHGVs, so we’re looking at trucks in late 2024 and early 2025 that will be equipped with battery arrays that will enable them to haul their cargo 450-600km. But in order for them to charge rapidly enough for commercial use, they will need a lot of power in a short period of time.

Cue megawatt charging.

Existing electric trucks can use CCS chargers, with rapid-charging capabilities of 350-400kWh. However, for a truck driver to fully charge their vehicle during their mandatory 45-minute rest break, a new MCS standard of 1,000kWh will be required.

Thankfully, there are far-sighted people addressing the issue already. One of them is Anja van Niersen, CEO of Milence, a company that is in the process of building a high-performance charging network for heavy trucks and coaches in Europe.

“We expect that in the course of 2024, we will move to megawatt charging for trucks,” says Van Niersen. “The MCS standard is now in development: the last phases of getting the protocols accepted and certified are going to be done this year or early next year.”

The freight sector understands that this is the direction of travel and a deployment date of 2024 will also give confidence to the market that they are able to charge in a way that is suitable for trucks.

Van Niersen says: “Once drivers have the confidence and the experience that things are working, and they are able to book a slot for their charging, they can stop at an MCS charger, plug in for 45 minutes, and have a rest. While they’re having their mandatory break, the truck is charging for the next part of their trip.”

The development of MCS charging is arriving just in time, as new emission regulations later this decade will mean that companies are responsible for the CO2 emissions of their entire supply chain. As van Niersen says: “The demand for electric transportation will see a huge uptick. I don't think every company is already thinking about that, but that once the regulations come into force, there will be a huge demand for electric trucking. And that's the moment that we need to be ready with the first infrastructure on the roadside, making it possible for companies to switch to full electric driving.”

Let’s hope that the charging infrastructure develops rapidly enough that we don’t see queues of frustrated truckers at motorway service stations in a few years’ time.

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