Milence Opens Hessen’s First Long-Haul Electric-Truck Charging Park

Milence, a joint venture of Daimler Truck, Traton, and the Volvo Group, opened its first charging park in Hessen in late April. The park is located in Kassel-Lohfelden, central Germany, at the SVG Autohof Lohfeldener Rüssel truck stop, at the intersection of the A7 and A49 motorways. It closes a gap in charging coverage on the A7, Germany’s longest autobahn and a major north-south freight route linking Scandinavia to southern Europe. From Kassel, trucks can reach any point in Germany within a day.

The park’s four 400-kilowatt charging bays can charge trucks in 45 to 90 minutes, about the length of a mandatory driver rest break. A 900-kilowatt integrated battery storage system allows all four bays to run at full power simultaneously despite limited local grid connectivity – the first of its kind installed by Milence and an approach the company plans to use at other sites where grid upgrades lag behind demand.

Site selection was supported by Hessen’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Development through the “Strom bewegt” (Electricity Moves) initiative managed by the state’s energy agency, LEA Hessen.

Milence was established to create a Europe-wide public charging network for heavy goods vehicles. The company now operates nine charging parks in Germany, part of a broader target of 50 parks across 10 European markets (including 18 in Germany) by the end of 2026.

To promote the technology, Milence’s roadshow “Power to Go Further” stopped in Kassel-Lohfelden for the opening. The tour involved four electric trucks from Daimler, MAN, Volvo, and Renault driving 1,000 kilometers from Paris to Berlin using only Milence chargers. The company reports that the tour resulted in a cost per kilometer of €0.995, compared with about €1.003 for diesel, and estimated CO2 savings of up to 1,470 kg per truck – positioning long-haul electric trucks as an increasingly competitive alternative to diesel.