Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part C journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trc Battery electric propulsion: An option for heavy-duty vehicles? Results from a Swiss case-study Emir Çabukoglu, Gil Georges ⁎ , Lukas Küng, Giacomo Pareschi, Konstantinos Boulouchos Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research on Efficient Technologies and Systems for Mobility, Zurich, Switzerland ARTICLE INFO Abbreviations: BEV Battery Electric Vehicle CNG Compressed Natural Gas ENTSO-E European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity GTE Goods Transport Survey ICE Internal Combustion Engine LNG Liquified Natural Gas LSVA Distance-specific Heavy-duty Vehicle Tax MPW Maximum Permissible Weight PHEV Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle pkm Passenger-kilometer SOC State of Charge tkm Tonne-kilometer vkm Vehicle-kilometer Mt Megaton WHVC World Harmonized Vehicle Cycle Keywords: Road freight heavy-duty truck Battery electric propulsion Technology potential ABSTRACT Road freight is the most energy-intensive freight mode (per tkm) and runs almost exclusively on fossil fuels. Electrification could change that, but can batteries really power actual heavy-duty operations? This study introduces a data-driven, bottom-up approach to explore the technical limits of electrification using real data from the entire Swiss truck fleet. Full electrification in- creased the total Swiss electricity demand by about 5% (3 TW h per year) over its current level and avoid about 1 megaton of CO 2 per year (accounting for emissions of generation). Realizing this potential required (1) an allowance to exceed current maximum permissible weight reg- ulations, (2) a high-capacity grid access for charging at the home-base (at least 50 kW) and (3) a supporting intra-day energy infrastructure (we explored battery swapping). Boosting the gravi- metric energy density of the battery cells was generally beneficial, but only effective if the aforementioned conditions were met. Thus, right now, battery electric trucks are no drop-in replacements for their Diesel counterparts. To allow their wide-spread usage, the road-freight sector would have to transform well beyond the vehicle. The required changes are substantial, but not unthinkable. Therefore, we think electric trucks deserve further exploration, in particular regarding their costs, life-cycle impact, technological variants and comparison to competing technologies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2018.01.013 Received 5 September 2017; Received in revised form 15 January 2018; Accepted 15 January 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail address: gil.georges@lav.mavt.ethz.ch (G. Georges). Transportation Research Part C 88 (2018) 107–123 Available online 04 February 2018 0968-090X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T