Volvo Group, Traton & Daimler Truck kickstart CV Charging Europe
Daimler Truck, Traton and the Volvo Group have received regulatory approvals for their electric truck charging joint venture announced last winter. As a result, the three partners have established CV Charging Europe (CVCE), with headquarters in Amsterdam. As suspected, Anja van Niersen, formerly Allego, acts as CEO.
As announced last year, the new company plans to build and operate at least 1,700 high power charging points on and near motorways and logistics hubs in Europe within the next five years.
Daimler Trucks, the Volvo Groups and Volkswagen’s commercial vehicles subsidiary Traton agreed to invest half a billion euros, saying this was by far the largest investment in dedicated charging infrastructure for heavy electric trucks in Europe.
CV Charging Europe (CV for Commercial vehicles) will push ahead with the ramp-up of its activities, especially the development of the charging network, to be able to offer public charging stations for commercial electric vehicles with a focus on reliability and good accessibility, according to the statement.
As with previous communications, technical details such as charging standards, charging power, and the size of the hubs remain unclear. The partners have only repeated what was said before, that they want to consider different use cases “as part of a customer-centric approach” – i.e. both charging during the legally prescribed 45-minute rest period for drivers and slower charging overnight.
As for the brand name, CV Charging Europe still mentions a later revelation in the latest statements. However, the website and other social media channels suggest CV Charging Europe is here to stay, not just as a working title, especially since the JV is now ready to take up operations.
Also, on LinkedIn, their CEO Anja Van Niersen has made her role official. The former head of Allego had been appointed by the three partners even before the cartel authorities had given the go-ahead as reported. The drag, which lasted nearly half a year, had prompted critique by Daimler truck boss Martin Daum: “This should have happened three months ago. We should already be operational,” he said back in April. “We are ready to invest the money, we have someone ready to take over the chief executive role, and she can’t do it because we don’t have the approval.”
In today’s statement, Daimler considered van Niersen “to bring a breadth of experience from the energy and charging industry sector”.
The companies also called the launch of CV Charging Europe “a call to action to other industry players”. Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of Volvo Group, said: “We are making what would be impossible for one actor alone to accomplish – this strong partnership is a significant milestone and accelerator towards carbon-neutral transport in Europe by 2050.”
Daimler Truck, Traton and the Volvo Group own equal shares in the joint venture. Together, they are among Europe’s most potent makers of commercial vehicles. All have recently begun to release zero-emission solutions, however, with only Traton banking on battery-electric power alone.
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