Vianeo and APRR open truck charging corridor between Paris and Lyon
APRR and Vianeo installed truck charging stations about every 150 kilometres between the major cities of Paris and Lyon. The stations are located partly on one side and partly on both sides of the motorway at the Galande service area on the A5b, the A6 near Melun, Auxerre, and at two locations near Beaune. Charging is possible with up to 480 kW using CCS.
The Galande service station – the closest charging location to Paris – features a 400 kW Alpitronics column and a 480 kW EVBox charger. The partners’ announcement does not clarify whether this is the configuration for all locations. Vianeo only mentions equipping each location with a CCS charger with 400 to 480 kW and keeping a “reserve charger” at each location to “ensure optimum availability.” That could be interpreted to mean that the two devices from different manufacturers should be able to fill in for each other.
With regard to further planning, the Vianeo website states that eleven more locations will follow in the coming year, for example, at the Sommesous motorway service area between Reims and Troyes and near Lyon in the municipality of Dardilly. The goal is to set up this corridor on other motorway networks and in logistics zones to offer freight forwarders a reliable national network with ultra-fast charging processes at a pace that suits their routes. Megawatt charging (MCS) will also be possible in the future. However, the French company has yet to comment on the exact rollout plan for the MCS chargers.
Vianeo is the charging infrastructure brand of the energy group Engie, founded in 2023. By 2025, Engie aims to offer 12,000 charging points for electric cars and heavy commercial vehicles in France. Last year, Vianeo already commissioned Siemens to supply 251 Sicharge D charging points with an output of 300 kW and 69 Sicharge D charging points with 160 kW.
In the truck charging sector, the corridor now opened is the Engie subsidiary’s first venture in collaboration with motorway company APRR. The duo also offers logistics companies a reservation system as a service so that they can secure a fixed time slot for charging. According to the initiators, the corridor is suitable for transport companies with fleets of trucks with an average range of 300 kilometres. The French company is thus addressing many electric trucks already in circulation. That is because the new generation of electric long-haul trucks with a range of 500 kilometres or more has only just been introduced or has only just become ready for series production.
“Today, trucks are available, and operating costs are increasingly favourable to electric over diesel, even for large tonnages,” says Didier Liautaud, General Director of Engie Vianeo France. “The only thing holding hauliers back from making the switch is the assurance that they will find enough charging points with the right power to be able to charge quickly and minimise the impact on the organisation of their rounds. It’s our role to set up these infrastructures to speed up the transition”.
Guillaume Hérent, Director General of the motorway company APRR-AREA, adds: “Since December 2022, APRR-AREA have been the first motorway networks to be 100% equipped with electric charging stations for light vehicles. We are proud today to be contributing, alongside ENGIE, to the decarbonisation of all forms of mobility, with the installation of the first electric charging stations in France dedicated to heavy goods vehicles and long-distance coaches.”
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