The Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) invited representatives from the logistics industry to a total of three events in the ‘BMV Expert Dialogue: Climate-friendly commercial vehicles in practice’ series. The third event in Heusenstamm, Hesse, on 24 November marked the successful conclusion of the series for 2025.
From practice for practice
A special feature was that the events took place at logistics companies in the region, who gave other interested companies insights into their experiences of switching to fully electric commercial vehicles. The expert dialogues therefore provided a valuable platform for exchange and networking and were used by many freight forwarders and logistics companies – in total, over 140 people took part. Many participants considered the tours of the logistics companies’ premises to be a highlight, where they were able to view the vehicles and loading solutions on site, ask questions and in some cases even test the electric trucks themselves.
The aim of the BMV expert dialogues was to give users the opportunity to obtain information about switching to climate-friendly commercial vehicles, learn about the practical experiences of pioneers in the field and show that this switch is economically feasible.
Dr Hendrik Haßheider, Head of the Climate-Friendly Commercial Vehicles and Infrastructure Division at the BMV: “The concept behind the event format has proven successful: Freight forwarders and logistics companies gained realistic insights, concrete answers and practical tips for switching to electric trucks and setting up charging infrastructure on an equal footing with practitioners. I was very impressed by the willingness to share experiences and the readiness to switch to zero-emission trucks. I would like to express my special thanks to the host companies of the three BMV expert dialogues – all three of which are family-run medium-sized companies – for their dedicated efforts and involvement.”
The main insights from all three expert dialogues can be summarised as follows:
- Vehicle and energy -related topics must be considered together.
- Companies have numerous opportunities for economic optimisation, both on the vehicle side (tolls, use cases) and on the infrastructure side (charging management, charging infrastructure sharing, PV electricity, battery storage, dynamic electricity tariffs).
- The pioneering companies unanimously reported that the switch to more climate-friendly drive systems requires thorough and long-term planning on the one hand, but on the other hand, a ‘simply do it’ mentality is very helpful and that all problems can ultimately be solved.
The BMV expert dialogues on climate-friendly commercial vehicles in practice were organised on behalf of the BMV by NOW GmbH and ifok GmbH and supported by the respective state agencies: hySOLUTIONS for Hamburg, e-mobil BW for Baden-Württemberg and the State Energy Agency (LEA – Landesesenergieagentur) Hesse. Reports on the individual events as well as guidelines and fact sheets can be found (in German) on the NOW GmbH website Klimafreundliche-Nutzfahrzeuge.de.
Image: ifok/Jean Noir Photography
