£19.3bn ‘electric roads’ proposal for UK lorries

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have called for the electrification of 7,500km of the UK’s major road network to enable lorries to be powered by overhead charging cables.

A team from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF), which brings together heavy vehicle engineering expertise from the department of engineering and logistics expertise from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Westminster and a consortium of industry partners, has proposed that building a so-called ‘electric road system’ could be used to decarbonise 65% of UK lorry kilometres travelled by 2040.

It claimed that the infrastructure could be built at an
estimated cost of £19.3bn, using private finance

A report produced by the team, called ‘Decarbonising the UK’s Long-Haul Road Freight at Minimum Economic Cost’, set out the case for a nationwide rollout of the electric road system by the late 2030s, with the cost of the project (investment in electrification infrastructure such as catenary cables and substations) paid back over a 15-year period by charging hauliers for the electricity. 

Powered by the national electricity grid, lorries driving on the inside lane would connect to overhead catenary cables through an automatic pantograph system – similar to those found on the top of electric trains. The electricity would power both the lorry’s electric motor and recharge its on-board electric battery.

The battery, which would be similar in size to an electric car battery, would enable the lorry to complete its journey away from the catenary system. Lorries would be free to leave the catenary wires to overtake, with the pantograph rapidly connecting and disconnecting automatically as needed. 

The report’s co-author David Cebon, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Cambridge and director of the SRF, said there was a “clear trend” towards battery electric vehicles for urban delivery that when combined with pantograph electric vehicles for long-haul freight and a decarbonised electricity grid, could achieve virtually zero greenhouse gas emissions. 

Cebon said: “The economics are a triple win. The cost
savings due to energy efficiency are sufficient to pay back the infrastructure
investment in 15 years, the investment in pantograph electric lorries in 1.5
years, with enough left over for the government to replace its current income
from diesel fuel tax with an excise tax on electricity sales.”

The report suggests that work on the first phase of a
four-phase programme could start with an £80m pilot project in the North East
of England, following in the footsteps of Sweden, Germany and Italy, where
trials of electric road systems have already taken place. The trial could
precede a first construction phase, starting as soon as 2026.