E.ON Drive Infrastructure (EDRI) and E.ON Group Innovation, together with eight industry partners, have successfully developed and tested Europe’s first interoperable reservation system for charging electric trucks.
The “Truck Charging” project, coordinated by the innovation centre UnternehmerTUM and carried out from July 2025 to March 2026, has produced a working prototype. It allows fleet operators to book charging slots in advance across different providers and networks – a crucial step towards making electric heavy-duty transport possible at scale.
The consortium comprised nine partners along the entire value chain: MAN Truck & Bus, E.ON Group Innovation, Alpitronic, AVL, FRYTE Mobility, Metzger Logistik & Spedition, Cosmic Cat, the City of Munich and UnternehmerTUM as project coordinator. The results were presented at the closing event at the Verkehrszentrum of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Closing the planning gap in electric logistics
As electric trucks become more widespread, logistics companies face a fundamental operational challenge: existing planning and dispatching processes were not designed for electric vehicles. Charging is often organised manually, for example with spreadsheets and last-minute coordination, leaving fleets vulnerable to unpredictable downtime and range uncertainty. At the same time, depot operators are asking how they can open up their charging infrastructure to third parties without disrupting their own operations.
The “Truck Charging” project addresses both sides of this problem directly. The interoperable booking system allows dispatchers to reserve charging slots in advance, both at public charging stations and at third-party logistics depots. At the same time, depot and charging infrastructure operators gain a tool for managing availability, time slots and access rules – enabling them to make efficient use of their charging infrastructure.
E.ON’s “Truck Reservation” platform at the heart of the system
E.ON’s “Truck Reservation” platform provides the booking backend of the integrated system. It works in combination with FRYTE Mobility’s “Matchmaking” platform, which connects vehicles, charging infrastructure and energy systems via open interfaces, including interfaces based on the OCPI standard. FRYTE also enables operators without their own booking function to become part of the interoperable system.
Together, the two platforms enable fleet operators to plan charging needs along a route, reserve time slots with a tolerance of ±15 minutes, authenticate on arrival via a web app, and adjust bookings at short notice if the route changes.
Real-world test in winter conditions
In February 2026, the consortium tested the prototype in real-life operation. An electric MAN truck belonging to Metzger Logistik & Spedition covered a distance of more than 300 kilometres in wintry conditions through Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, using three pre-booked charging stations: the GVZ – Kloiber GmbH depot in Augsburg, Metzger’s own depot in Kupferzell, and a public E.ON Drive charging station at the MAN Service Center in Karlsfeld, equipped with four Alpitronic HYC400 fast chargers, each delivering up to 400 kW. The test covered the entire process chain, from route and charging planning through reservation and authentication to the charging session itself.
A building block for the electrification of heavy-duty transport in Europe
For E.ON Drive Infrastructure, the “Truck Reservation” project is a direct continuation of its commitment to building the charging infrastructure needed to electrify European freight transport. EDRI is already investing heavily in public high-power charging infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles across Europe. Together with its partners Voltix and GreenWay, EDRI is developing around 330 Megawatt Charging System (MCS) charging points at 55 strategic locations in nine European countries as part of the EU-funded HDV-E project. Each point will offer a charging output of 1 MW or more, so that electric trucks can compete with diesel trucks on range, charging speed and cost-effectiveness.
Timo Sillober, CEO of E.ON Drive Infrastructure, comments: “Building the charging infrastructure is only part of the solution. Trucks are embedded in tightly scheduled logistics chains – a charger that cannot be reserved in advance is not a reliable option. With the Truck Reservation platform and this consortium, we have shown that interoperable, cross-operator bookings are already technically possible today. This is a crucial building block for the electrification of European road freight transport.”
Next steps: scaling the system
The consortium has identified two follow-up projects. The first, “System Orchestration TCO Blueprint”, aims to bring structure to the currently fragmented landscape of depot charging by defining clear roles, interfaces and data flows between transport management systems (TMS), charge point management systems (CPMS), energy management systems (EMS) and payment providers. The second project, “Flexible Energy Hubs”, will investigate how logistics depots can be designed as intelligent energy hubs, combining operational flexibility (routes, time slots) with energy flexibility (load shifting, storage, price signals) to enable new business models.
About E.ON Drive Infrastructure (EDRI)
E.ON Drive Infrastructure (EDRI) is a leading operator of charging infrastructure in Europe and part of the E.ON Group. The company builds, owns and operates public charging infrastructure for all types of electric vehicles, with the aim of making charging possible for everyone, everywhere. EDRI currently operates more than 8,800 public charging points in 11 European countries and adds a further 1,000 high-power charging points to its network every year. www.edri.com
