New Pantograph Concepts for the eHighway System

Climate change and the resulting impacts on humans and nature are one of the greatest challenges of our time. One of the most important ways to limit global warming as one of the driving forces of climate change is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is a need for action in the area of road freight transport, among other things, due to the steadily growing demand for freight transport. Strategies for shifting freight traffic to more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly means of transport are often only partially feasible due to the high demands on flexibility. In short term, there is almost no alternative to the use of renewable energies in freight transport on the road. This is exactly where the eHighway technology developed by Siemens Mobility comes into play. Hybrid trucks are coupled to an overhead contact line system via a pantograph and thus can be supplied with electrical energy while driving. This is used on the one hand to power the truck and on the other to charge the batteries. Routes that are not equipped with an overhead contact line system can be bridged in this way. The application concept of the eHighway is to electrify key routes in the transport network with an overhead line system, thereby enabling electric truck traffic over long distances and significantly reducing the associated CO2 emissions.

The eHighway technology is an adaptation and further development of technologies from trolleybuses, trams and trains, which is currently tested in various field tests and pilot projects from an ecological, economic and traffic perspective. In this context, IVW is working on the concept development of a lightweight construction solution for the upper arms of the pantograph.