Siemens has been commissioned by the German state of Hesse to build an overhead contact line for hybrid electrified lorry trials on a 10km stretch of autobahn.

The system will be installed on the A5 autobahn between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd interchange at the Frankfurt Airport and Darmstadt/Weiterstadt interchange.

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With this field trial, the eHighway will be tested on a public highway in Germany for the first time. Siemens will be responsible for the planning, construction and, as an option, maintenance of the system.

The system is being built as part of the joint project, ‘Electrified, innovative heavy freight transport on autobahns’ (ELISA) of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

Hessen Mobil, responsible for road and transport management in Hesse, is managing the project.

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“Construction of the system will demonstrate the feasibility of integrating overhead contact systems with a public highway,” said Hessen Mobil head of transport, Gerd Riegelhuth.

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“The system will be used for real transport networks and prove the practicality of climate-neutral freight transport in the urban region of Frankfurt.”

Siemens claims the eHighway is twice as efficient compared to internal combustion engines.

The core element of the system is an intelligent pantograph on the trucks combined with a hybrid drive system.

Trucks equipped with the system operate emission-free with electricity from the overhead line and automatically switch to a hybrid engine on roads without overhead lines.