Strategies, tools and concepts for optimised road Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) long-haul logistics use cases (2ZERO Partnership)

• Accelerated uptake of Heavy Duty (HD) Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) across the EU and Associated Countries through innovative logistics models optimizing battery size and charging strategies;
• Enhanced reliability and efficiency of road freight systems via software tools for decision-making on truck configurations, charging strategies, mission planning, and interoperable cross-border services;
• Increased portfolio of real-life HD-BEV operational demonstrations for long-haul and cross-border operations with associated logistics models;
• Enhanced understanding of stakeholder needs in the EU and Associated Countries for integrating HD-BEVs in logistics operations, including long-term novel usage models.

Proposals must: 1) Derive in-depth insights and lessons from current EU/Associated Countries long-haul missions along major road arteries to overcome range and TCO limitations; 2) Propose cost-effective HD-BEV logistics and operational models using modular vehicle setups and robust charging strategies, based on real operational data; 3) Test and validate new logistics concepts and models in real demonstrations that optimise shipment variabilities (range, charging time, regional differences, driver rest times, etc.); 4) Develop and integrate digital decision-support tools (including digital twins where relevant) to support efficient operations, planning, and cross-border interoperability; 5) Base real-life demonstrations on existing operator fleets covering at least eight distinct long-haul mission types across varied climatic and cross-border conditions, involving multiple logistics companies or users; 6) Develop scenarios outlining distance dependency as a function of vehicle combinations, charging station locations and capacities, and payload demands; 7) Ensure demonstrated concepts, models, and tools include strategies for scalable upscaling of HD-BEV deployment, taking into account logistics models, complete vehicle combination performance, battery ageing, and energy recuperation effects; and 8) Adopt Open Science practices and FAIR data principles, and report project results to the co-programmed European Partnership “Towards zero emission road transport” (2 ZERO) for KPI monitoring.