Truck charging at your depot: how to approach it

The electric truck is no longer future music. Manufacturers such as Volvo, Scania, DAF, MAN, and Mercedes-Benz (Daimler Trucks) are increasingly offering models with battery capacities of 200 to more than 500 kWh and ranges exceeding 500 km. But buying an electric truck is one thing — getting it reliably charged on the road every day is another story.

Truck charging at a depot places fundamentally different demands than charging passenger cars or vans. It concerns much higher power, shorter charging windows, and an operation that does not tolerate delays. In this article, Powerland explains how to prepare your depot for e-truck charging — from the choice between DC and AC to the role of battery storage, route planning, and phasing.

DC or AC: when do you need which type of charger?

The reflex with e-truck charging is often "we need DC fast chargers." That is true in many cases, but not always. The right choice depends on your operation.

When AC is sufficient

AC charging (typically 11 to 22 kW per charging point) works well for vehicles with long idle times. Vans that return in the evening and leave again in the morning have eight to ten hours to charge — more than enough for AC. The power per charging point is low, the hardware is cheaper, and the grid connection is less burdened. For a fleet of light commercial vehicles with fixed routes and predictable idle times, AC at the depot is often the smartest and cheapest basic strategy.

When DC becomes indispensable

With trucks, the picture changes. Charging an electric truck with a 400 kWh battery on 22 kW AC takes more than 18 hours — not an option if the vehicle needs to be back on the road in the morning. DC fast charging with power from 150 to 375 kW reduces that charging time to one and a half to three hours.

DC becomes indispensable as soon as you work with trucks with high daily mileage, tight departure windows, intermediate charging between trips or shifts, or multiple trucks that need to be charged in a short time window. In those scenarios, AC is not a supplement but a bottleneck.

The mix is often the solution

On many logistics sites, the ideal setup is a mix of both. DC for trucks and vehicles with tight rotations. AC for vans, pool cars, and vehicles with sufficient overnight charging. That mix saves power — and therefore money — because you do not need to size every charging point for maximum power.

The power problem: why truck charging challenges your grid connection

This is where the real bottleneck lies. One DC fast charger of 300 kW draws as much power as dozens of households combined. Add three or four trucks next to it charging simultaneously and you are quickly looking at power that the existing grid connection of a depot cannot handle.

Moreover, that charging power comes on top of the existing consumption of your site: cooling, HVAC, lighting, forklifts, conveyor belts. At peak moments — shift changes, arrival waves, simultaneous charging and cooling — the total power demand can be significantly higher than what your connection is designed for.

Grid reinforcement is the classic solution, but in practice it takes time (in Belgium eight to sixteen weeks for a new high-power connection via Fluvius, longer in congestion areas) and money. Not every site can or wants to wait for that.

Battery storage as an enabler for truck charging

This is where battery storage makes the difference. A battery on your site functions as a buffer between the grid and your charging infrastructure. The principle is simple: the battery continuously charges from the grid at the available power — also at night, also at times when there is little consumption. As soon as trucks need to be charged, the battery supplies the peak power that the grid alone cannot deliver.

Concretely, this means you can offer DC fast charging on a grid connection that is actually too small for it. A 300 kW fast charger can function on a 100 kW grid connection when a battery bridges the difference. This not only saves on connection costs — it makes truck charging feasible in the short term without waiting for grid reinforcement.

In addition, the battery does peak shaving: by flattening peaks, you pay lower capacity tariffs. And in combination with solar panels on the roof, the battery stores energy produced during the day that you use for charging at night or during peaks.

Your route planning as the basis for the charging plaza

A common mistake with truck charging is designing based on the number of vehicles rather than the operation. Ten trucks does not automatically mean ten DC chargers. What matters is when which vehicle departs, how much energy it needs, and how much time is available to charge.

A truck that departs at 05:00 and returns at 20:00 has all night to charge — possibly at lower power. A truck that arrives at 14:00 and needs to leave again at 17:00 has three hours and needs DC. A truck that makes two trips per day with an hour in between needs a quick top-up.

By taking route planning as the starting point, you determine per vehicle the charging strategy: how many kW are needed, when, and for how long. That then determines the mix of DC and AC, the total simultaneous power, the capacity of the battery buffer, and the sizing of your grid connection. Designing from route planning prevents you from over-investing in power you do not need — or under-investing, causing your schedule to stall.

Physical design: a charging plaza for trucks is not a parking lot with chargers

Trucks maneuver differently than vans. They are longer, turn wider, and need more space to approach, turn, and exit. A charging plaza designed for passenger cars does not work for a fleet of 18-tonners.

Truck charging requires a layout with logical traffic lanes, sufficient maneuvering space, clear separation between charging zones, waiting zones, and pedestrian areas, and positioning of charging points that fits the dimensions and turning circles of your vehicles. Cable management is extra important with trucks: longer cables, higher power, and heavier connectors require a thoughtful setup.

Impact protection is not a luxury but a necessity. A DC charger worth tens of thousands of euros being hit by a reversing truck is an expensive and avoidable problem.

Phasing: start with what you need, prepare for what is coming

Most transport companies do not electrify their entire fleet at once. You start with two or three electric trucks and scale up as the fleet grows, contracts expire, and technology further develops.

That requires a phased design. In the first phase, you install the chargers you need now, but you already provide the cable routes, distribution boards, and space for the next phase. You size the grid connection — or the battery buffer — not only for the current fleet but for the growth path over the next three to five years. You lay conduits and provisions for future DC lines.

That costs a bit more in the first phase, but it saves much more later. Breaking open again, pulling cables, and replacing boards is more expensive and disruptive than providing it correctly in one go.

A concrete example: if you know your fleet will double in two years, already install the cabling and distribution board capacity for the full number of charging points now. The chargers themselves you only place when you need them. This way, you only pay for hardware upon use, but you avoid the more expensive ground and cable work later.

MCS: the next step in truck charging

The current standard for DC fast charging with trucks is CCS2, with power up to 350-375 kW. But the sector is preparing for MCS — the Megawatt Charging System — which enables charging power up to 750 kW and higher. Manufacturers such as Scania have already announced MCS support for 2026.

MCS will become especially relevant for long-haul trucks that need to charge maximally during short rest stops. For depots designing a charging plaza now, it is wise to take this into account in spatial and electrical preparation — even if you only install MCS chargers in a few years. The cable cross-sections, cooling, and distribution board capacity for MCS power are substantially heavier than for CCS2.

The role of solar panels on logistics roofs

Logistics sites often have large, flat roof surfaces — ideal for solar panels. The combination with truck charging is logical: energy produced during the day can go directly to the charging infrastructure or to the battery buffer.

The calculation is simple. Every kWh you produce yourself and use or store on site is a kWh you do not take from the grid. On a large warehouse roof, this can amount to significant volumes. In combination with an EMS that aligns production, consumption, storage, and charging, PV structurally lowers the kWh cost of your truck charging.

Summary: where do you start?

Truck charging at a depot is not a matter of ordering and connecting chargers. It is an energy project that starts with your operation: your fleet, your route planning, your site, your growth plans. From there you determine the charging strategy (DC, AC, or mix), the power requirement, the role of battery storage and PV, the physical layout, and the phasing.

The sooner you start that process — even if your first electric trucks have not yet been ordered — the better prepared you will be when the time comes.