Gofast, swiss charging station ready for heavy electric trucks. On the formerly inconspicuous motorway rest area with the technical name Oftringen Ost on the A1, there is recently an electricity filling station with a total of eight high-performance charging stations for electric cars.
The makers of the Swiss company GOFAST have already thought about the future electrification of heavy goods traffic when designing the plant. The project is part of the federal government’s roadmap for electromobility, in which a total of 100 rest areas on the national road network are to be equipped with fast charging parks by 2030.
As a contribution to the achievement of the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the Federal Government, together with representatives of cantons and cities as well as the electricity and mobility industry, signed a roadmap for the promotion of electromobility at the end of 2018.
Part of this roadmap is the expansion of the fast charging infrastructure at a total of 100 motorway rest areas throughout Switzerland. The Swiss company GOFAST, which emerged victorious in the application process, has now opened the first of a total of 20 fast-charging locations at the Oftringen Ost rest area.
The newly opened fast charging station on the A1 stands out, even if the line between Solothurn and Lenzburg is not one of the development areas in terms of fast charging stations. GOFAST alone operates eight fast-charging locations along the approximately 60 motorway kilometres with a total of 26 loading points.
PETROL STATION ROOF PRODUCES GREEN ELECTRICITY
Coming from the west, the 5-metre-high steel roof structure catches the eye, with which GOFAST E-motorists want to offer effective weather protection and also to create a recognition value throughout the country in the future. The largest roof of an electricity filling station in Switzerland is likely to be well received by electric car-driving.
Charging stations often have to be operated unprotected from precipitation. In addition, the approximately 160m2 large roof area at the same time as a photovoltaic system with an output of 40 kilowatt peaks. In one year, it is estimated that 40,000 kilowatt hours of solar power will be generated. Here and at all other GOFAST fast charging stations, only green electricity flows from Switzerland.
GOFAST Fast Charging Station for 40 Tonners Trucks
The fast charging park offers space for eight simultaneous charging operations. The HPC charging columns, which are equipped with all common plug types, supply vehicles with outputs of up to 150 kilowatts. Depending on the vehicle type, temperatures and battery level, electric car drivers can gain 150 kilometers of additional range in just 10 minutes.
The special thing about this fast charging station, however, is not necessarily the high charging capacity, says GOFAST CEO Domenic Lanz. Rather, the layout is special.
Domenic Lanz, GOFAST CEO:
We have included in the design of the plant that in the next few years, more and more commercial vehicles will be electric, from normal vans to 18 meters of trucks
In fact, in Oftringen, a 40 tonne semi-trailer can easily charge its battery. It may sound simple, but in reality it hasn’t been possible at most e-charging stations.
GOFAST to untap into charging stations for heavy trucks
For the time being, large electric semi-trailers are likely to be among the rarer guests at GOFAST and the good accessibility is especially appreciated by customers with trailers or caravans. While the sales figures for battery-electric passenger cars are showing a steep upward trend, the development of electric trucks is still tentative.
For various reasons, both manufacturers and logistics companies still call themselves “open to technology”. The fact that there is no CO in Switzerland so far, limits values for heavy traffic may contribute to this circumstance. In addition, the range, which is essential for the transport of goods, remains a challenge in today’s technology of battery-electric vehicles.
With ranges of field-proven e-trucks of just over 200 kilometers, the use is currently primarily suitable along predictable routes, for example as a disposal vehicle, for the last mile of warehouses to the sales outlets or for postal orders between two logistics centers, as the example of Hugelshofer Logistik AG shows.
Since 2019, the Frauenfeld logistics company has been relying on a battery-powered 40-tonne truck.
Battery Electric Trucks Drives the Most Efficient
The fact that battery-electric trucks are no longer just music of the future is also evident at the nearby GOFAST fast charging station in Oensingen.
Two to three times a week, a battery-electric waste disposal truck from Eggenschwiler Transporte AG charges its battery for the rest of the tour. The disposal team can ideally combine the charging stop with a lunch break at the Take Away of the VEBO gourmet workshop.
The high energy efficiency and low maintenance costs of the electric drive also provide interesting arguments from an entrepreneurial point of view and ensure that e-trucks are increasingly being used by various large logistics, retail and industrial companies in Switzerland.
Similarly, the range problem is likely to soon fade into the background, as several manufacturers intend to launch large semi-trailer tractors with ranges of more than 500 kilometres in the next 2-3 years.
READY FOR HEAVY ELECTRICAL TRAFFIC, 03/11/2021 [in German]
