Comparative Analysis of Slow Charging, Fast Charging, and Battery Swapping in Electric Truck Logistics: A Harbor Transport Case

As the electrification of heavy-duty trucks accelerates, conventional charging methods face challenges, including long charging durations and reduced transportation efficiency. This paper compares and evaluates various charging methods for electric heavy-duty trucks (EHDTs), including slow charging, fast charging, battery swapping, and electric roads, from both technological and economic perspectives. A case study in a harbor setting further examines the cost and efficiency implications of a 22 kW slow charger, a 150 kW fast charger, and battery swapping (the swappable battery is charged with 150 kW). The analysis provides insights into selecting the most suitable charging solution by assessing annual charging costs, truck and infrastructure cost amortization, and downtime across different scenarios. The findings of this paper indicate that slow charging is cost-effective in low-demand operations but becomes impractical as operational demand increases, leading to excessive downtime exceeding 37,000 h annually in high-demand scenarios. Fast charging significantly reduces downtime but requires higher infrastructure investment and charging costs. Battery swapping minimizes downtime to less than 300 h annually in high-demand scenarios, and, despite a higher initial infrastructure cost, it emerges as the most cost-effective option over five years for medium- and high-utilization fleets, with a total cost of approximately €1.67 million in the studied harbor case. Thus, selecting a suitable charging solution depends on operational priorities, such as minimizing cost or maximizing fleet availability within a specific use-case context.