Identification and evaluation of solutions for long-haul electric road freight.

Abstract: Road freight transportation is important for the development of the global economy and, at the same time, one of the most destructive businesses when it comes to the environment and human health. As societies evolve, the need for freight transportation increases and the transport demand cannot in a sustainable way be fulfilled with the use of diesel trucks as it is done today. For the sake of our environment, the electrification transition needs to ramp up. However, when it comes to covering long distances with an electric truck, problems arise due to the lack of sufficient driving strategies, technology, and infrastructure adapted to the needs for long-distance electrified transportation. Therefore, different battery-electric truck solutions need to be evaluated to identify an economically, socially, and environmentally friendly way of operating. Consequently, the purpose of this master's thesis is the following:  From a carrier operation perspective, identify different solutions for electrified long-haul transportation and evaluate how cost competitive they are based on triple bottom line. To fulfill this purpose the study was divided into two steps, where the first one was to, through literature and interviews, identify different solutions for electric long-haul transportation and external parameters affecting these solutions. The parameters and solutions were then combined with different distances into focus cases. The second step consisted of identifying both internal and external cost drivers, which were used to create a cost model that considered environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The cost model was then used to evaluate the different focus cases to determine their competitiveness. The solutions were based on wire charging, a 300-, 450-, or 624 kWh battery, and were operated either through trailer swap or point-to-point. The external parameters that were the most important ones were battery degradation, the electricity market, and prerequisites for effective logistics. These were all combined into focus cases which were evaluated on the distances 300-, 400-, 500-, and 600 km. The cost model that was used included both internal and external costs to cover the economic, environmental, and social perspectives in the evaluation. To evaluate the focus cases and be able to compare it to a diesel solution the model considered the costs that differ between a battery electric truck and a diesel truck, which at an overall level was electricity cost, charging infrastructure, batteries, salary when charging, environmental, and social costs. For the distance of 300 km, the most competitive combination was wire charging, 300 kWh battery, and trailer swap. For the distances 400- and 500 km the best combination was wire charge, 450 kWh battery, and trailer swap. The best solution for 500 km was wire charge, 624 kWh battery, and trailer swap. The conclusion is, from a carrier operation perspective, that the most competitive solution to use is based on trailer swap, including a battery with a capacity that is adapted to the distance where the batteries can be charged through wire charging at a charger with a high utilization factor. Finally, for shorter distances, a battery electric truck is cost-competitive against a diesel truck. However, at longer distances a battery electric truck's competitiveness in comparison to a diesel truck gets worse, but at all distances the battery electric truck solution is both socially and environmentally beneficial in comparison to a diesel alternative.