Skip to main content

Siemens to build eHighway in Germany

Siemens has been commissioned by the German state of Hesse to build an overhead contact line for electrified freight transport on a ten kilometre stretch of autobahn to supply electricity for the electric drive of a hybrid truck. Siemens will install its eHighway on the A5 federal autobahn between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd interchange at the Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt/Weiterstadt interchange, the first time the eHighway has been tested on a public highway in Germany. Siemens will be responsib
August 11, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
189 Siemens has been commissioned by the German state of Hesse to build an overhead contact line for electrified freight transport on a ten kilometre stretch of autobahn to supply electricity for the electric drive of a hybrid truck.


Siemens will install its eHighway on the A5 federal autobahn between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd interchange at the Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt/Weiterstadt interchange, the first time the eHighway has been tested on a public highway in Germany.

Siemens will be responsible for the planning, construction and, as an option, maintenance of the system, which is being built as part of the joint project “Electrified, innovative heavy freight transport on autobahns” (ELISA) of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). Hessen Mobil, responsible for road and transport management in Hesse, is managing the project.

The core element of the system is an intelligent pantograph on the trucks combined with a hybrid drive system. Trucks equipped with the system operate locally emission-free with electricity from the overhead line and automatically switch to a hybrid engine on roads without overhead lines.

Siemens claims the eHighway is twice as efficient when compared to internal combustion engines, cutting energy consumption in half and also significantly reducing local air pollution.

Related Content

  • June 20, 2016
    Tri-nation cooperation on C-ITS Corridor
    In the European C-ITS Corridor project, authorities from three countries are working with the automotive industry on the deployment of Cooperative (V2X) Systems. Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems/Services (C-ITS) has the potential to improve road safety, transport efficiency and environmentally friendly mobility, as well as creating additional services and new business models. A set of international standards have been developed to provide the technical basis for the deployment of Cooperative ITS.
  • May 30, 2014
    US eyes European model for Illinois toll road upgrade
    David Crawford welcomes the adoption of European-style ITS technology by the US. The Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, US is well on the way towards becoming a ‘smart traffic corridor’, taking full advantage of active traffic management (ATM or ‘managed lanes’) technology that originated in Europe. It is one of the first American toll roads to do so; preliminary work began in 2014 and will continue through to 2016. Jane Addams is one of four toll roads operated by the publicly-owned Illinois State T
  • March 25, 2022
    Autobahn shows it is on the ball
    Germany has just created a central organisation to oversee the country’s 13,200km of motorways. David Arminas finds out about Autobahn’s role in cooperative ITS - and its part in the Euro 2024 football tournament
  • June 3, 2015
    Port of Hamburg launches intelligent traffic light
    The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) in Germany and NXP Semiconductors have partnered on an intelligent traffic light for the port that they claim optimises the flow of truck traffic and guides drivers through the increasingly heavily used port more quickly and safely. The smartPORT traffic light was developed by the HPA in conjunction with its partners NXP, Siemens, Heusch/Boesefeldt and Hamburg Verkehrsanlagen. NXP supplied the solutions for the wireless communication, V2X and RFID, and ensures data pro