Where to charge battery-electric trucks in Germany: A GIS-based statistical analysis using real-world truck data

While battery-electric trucks (BET) promise tremendous potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in road freight transport, their deployment necessitates an adequately developed charging infrastructure. Knowing the attractiveness of truck stop locations is crucial to ensure sufficient coverage and worthwhile charger installation and highlight potential demand for future efforts such as grid expansions as early as possible. Thus, this analysis aims to characterize current truck stop locations and derive the most suitable locations for BET charging infrastructure in Germany based on real-world truck data and GIS-based statistical analyses. Our results demonstrate that the attractiveness of any location is driven by multiple concurrent factors rather than one single factor. In addition, we derive three charging infrastructure archetypes that may constitute the backbone of a German charging network: (1) Large and high-traffic industrial areas such as industry hotspots, harbors, and airports; (2) Hosted rest areas or truck stops along the TEN-T network; (3) Industrial areas with designated truck parking areas, including hosting and services.