The highway where trucks work like electric trains

In Lübeck, Germany, there's one of several eHighway test projects: overhead catenary wires, where electric trucks with pantographs can pull power directly from the grid. Thanks to everyone who gave so much time to make this video possible!

Camera operator: Richard Bielau

With thanks to all the team at the eHighway and at Spedition Bode GmbH

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

I'm worried that this feels like an advert. It isn't. This is just a brief overview of the technology, and so far this is just a 2km test track, one of several. But this seems like such an obvious-in-hindsight idea (to me, at least!) that I found it very difficult to frame it in any way other than "I think this is a good thing"!

[SeanHodgins]

Can't wait to see this feature in Truck Simulator 3.

[paulm.]

Tom must have been like "Okay lockdown is over, let's shoot in Germany for 6 months."
But I like it.

[rustinpieces]

03:45 - that pantograph shows a lot of uneven wear already. The difference with trains here, is that the overhead line is constructed to be gently sweeping from left to right, while the train cannot move an inch L/R on its tracks. That looks like a serious drawback here since that L/R sweeping hansn't been incorporated in the powerlines here. I do like the idea though, who knows where we'll end up!

[oyuyuy]

It's funny that this 'trolleybus'-technology is 130 years old and now it's suddenly relevant again.

[Bossianus]

There is a electric test highway track on the A5 too between Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt.

[francisrogers]

What's amazing is that this tech has been used for about 100 years. Not just with trams, but with trolleybuses too, and some in rural areas.

[georgeoliver]

" well done James you've just invented the electric train"
Richard Hammond - 2013

[_TeXoN_]

Lets put steel wheels on the trucks to reduce friction, link them together to save air friction and a number of drivers and call it a train.

[TheSecondVersion]

"2040 is only 18 years away."

Bruh.

[robertlinke]

Tom: "personally i dont give predictions of the future"

Also Tom: "welcome to 2030"

[Happymali]

There was quite some criticism for the project, because the money that went into it could've been used very well to upgrade/expand rail lines and their electrification, replacing trucks whole on many of the long-range routes.

[lil_lyrix]

I like how not only does this lower emissions, but it keeps trucks out of the fast lane.

[maccrazy]

I still think that long-distance transport, where necessary at all (I mean we make decent butter in Austria, we don't need it trucked from Ireland), should be done mostly via train, since that is still a lot more efficient than these trucks, but this system is a lot better than the current one.

[landlocked_lifts]

James May and Jeremy Clarkson jokingly discussed this sort of thing about a decade ago - during rush hour, lower the power levels, everyone cruises along slowly. Rest of the day, crank it up, let everyone go 90mph.

[MusikCassette]

2:00 it is a bit weird to call it the most efficient solution, when the obvious comparison is trains.

[Peterowsky]

I am forever ashamed of my local politicians that massively downscaled our city's electric on-grid bus system that had been running continuously since 1949.
Over 30 years it was reduced to a tiny fraction of what it originally covered, only for them to make massive ad campaigns about how green they were while bringing battery powered buses in the last few years.

[creativeengineer]

“You just invented the electric train”
-Richard Hammond

[vitormolinari]

"[2040] is just 18 years away" was like a punch in the gut

[expansionone]

the system was a failure and research discontinued. The test route was dismantled in summer 2023