Can you charge electric trucks on a small grid connection?

Yes, in many cases. Most e-trucks can charge overnight at the depot on modest power per truck, as long as you control when each charger runs. The problem is the daytime top-up with a DC fast charger, which asks for 150 kW or more at once. A business battery charged slowly from the grid or your solar panels delivers that burst, so the charger runs on the connection you already have.

You run a transport company, a distribution centre or a fleet of construction or waste trucks. A customer, a tender or a low-emission zone pushes you towards electric trucks, and the dealer is ready to deliver. Then the electrician looks at your connection. One DC charger alone asks more power than the whole depot uses today, and a heavier connection means a study, a medium voltage cabin and a waiting time nobody can promise. Someone building solar panels and chargers for a Belgian logistics project wrote on a forum that he had waited more than a year for the Fluvius connection, with a delivery date expected within another eight months.

What is easy to miss: the truck arrives long before the connection. Until then the new trucks stand still or run half their routes. On a Dutch forum, a reader described a company that had bought a new electric fleet, only to hear from the grid operator that it had to stop charging because it drew too much power. It went back to diesel. The better route is to size the charging to your routes and your connection, and let a battery cover the peak that is left.

How much power does an electric truck need to charge?

Charging an electric truck takes a lot of energy, but the power depends on how fast you put it in. A Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 carries 621 kWh of battery for about 500 km, which is about 1.2 kWh per km. A truck that drives 250 km a day therefore needs about 300 kWh back every night.

Power levels: Scania (AC 22 to 43 kW, DC 150 to 375 kW or more) and Daimler Truck (eActros 600: 621 kWh, CCS up to 400 kW, about 30 minutes for 20 to 80% at about 1 MW). Charging times are our calculation: energy divided by power.

The same five trucks need 150 kW or 750 kW, depending only on when and how fast they charge. A French depot guide counts 120 to 250 kWh per truck per day, and warns that the real charging window is often only 4 to 8 hours: late returns, loading, washing and maintenance eat the rest of the night.

Depot charging or opportunity charging: what is the difference?

Depot charging means the truck charges while it stands at your site, usually overnight. Opportunity charging means short top-ups during the day: at your depot during loading, or at a public fast charger on the route. Most regional fleets need a mix of both.

• Depot charging overnight asks the least power per truck and uses your own electricity contract. It suits regional distribution, where trucks come back every evening.
• Top-ups at your own depot during loading or the lunch break ask a lot of power for a short time. That is where a small connection falls short and a battery helps.
• Public fast charging and megawatt charging on the motorway suit long-haul routes. You pay the operator's price, and you depend on a free charger.

Vans and cars charge on the same site? Their chargers are much smaller, and dynamic load management is often enough for them. We explain that in our article on charging stations for your business without a heavier connection.

Why is your grid connection too small for electric trucks?

Because a single DC truck charger can ask more power than your whole depot uses today, and a heavier connection is slow and expensive. In Flanders, Fluvius connects everything below 25 kVA on low voltage. Between 25 and 250 kVA the grid operator decides. Above 250 kVA you are always connected on medium voltage, with your own customer cabin.

• A study comes first. From 25 kVA, Fluvius makes a detailed study before it quotes. You pay for it even if you do not accept the quote: 493.90 euro excl. VAT for 56 to 1,000 kVA in 2026.
• Your own cabin. Above 250 kVA you supply and place the customer cabin, close to the public road, with all the equipment it needs.
• Grid congestion. In some areas Fluvius may postpone a new or heavier connection until the grid has been reinforced. Businesses in a congestion zone can join a local flexibility market while the rules for flexible connections are being drawn up.

Did Fluvius already refuse or postpone your request? Then read our article on your options when a heavier connection is refused. Are you weighing a medium voltage cabin against a battery? Our comparison of a high-voltage cabin or a battery sets out the costs.

How does a battery buffer let you charge e-trucks on a small connection?

The battery sits between the grid and the charger. The grid refills it slowly, at the power your connection can spare, and the battery delivers the burst when a truck plugs in. The grid never sees the charger's full power.

A worked example, illustrative and internally consistent, not a customer case. A depot has about 60 kW to spare on its connection during the day. It wants a 180 kW DC charger for a one-hour top-up at midday.

Without the battery, that charger would add up to 180 kW to your monthly peak; with it, the grid sees 60 kW. The battery needs about two hours to refill, so a second top-up fits in the afternoon. More top-ups close together need a bigger battery or more grid power.

In a Victron system, the peak shaving function keeps grid offtake under a current limit you set, for the whole system. The battery supplies what the chargers and the site need above that limit, as long as it has charge. Read what peak shaving is and when a battery pays off for the sizing logic.

A farm in Tielt shows the principle on a site whose connection was too small to grow: a battery system now gives the site more power, so a heavier connection was not needed.

How do you plan depot charging for an electric fleet?

Start from your routes and your charging window, not from the charger catalogue. The questions below decide how much power you need, and whether a battery adds anything.

Size on your longest routes and your latest returns, not on the average day. A plan that works on the worst day works on every other day.

Does charging electric trucks raise your peak demand?

Yes, if the chargers run in your busiest quarter-hour, and you pay for that peak every month. Grid tariffs for businesses charge the power you draw, not only the energy. On medium voltage in Flanders you pay for the access power you contract and for your monthly peak.

A 180 kW charger that starts while the warehouse, the cold store and the offices run at full power sets a new peak. The battery in the example above cuts that burst to 60 kW. How the capacity tariff and peak charges work is explained in how to calculate the capacity tariff for your business.

Charging at night is also often cheaper per kWh. With a dynamic contract you can steer the overnight charge to the cheapest hours: read how a dynamic energy contract works with a business battery.

When is a battery not the answer for truck charging?

When the fleet needs a lot of energy every night, all year, and your connection has no room even at night. A battery moves energy in time; it does not create it. If twenty trucks each need 300 kWh every night, that is 6,000 kWh a night, and the grid must deliver it.

Then a heavier connection or your own medium voltage cabin is the right route, and a battery can bridge the months until it is ready. Long-haul routes also rely on public fast charging and megawatt charging on the motorway. We tell you when the data shows that a battery does not pay off.

Solar panels help, but do not plan on them for trucks in winter. In winter a logistics roof produces far less than in summer, and trucks charge mostly at night anyway. The midday top-up is where solar and a battery fit best.

Is there support for truck charging and a battery in Belgium?

Yes, mainly through the tax side. For the increased investment deduction, charging points for electric vehicles are on the list for carbon-free transport, and a battery is on the energy list. Flanders has also run calls for charging solutions for heavy electric freight through VLAIO.

Conditions, certificates and rates are in our article on subsidies and tax deductions for a business battery. Check with your accountant and VLAIO or the Walloon administration whether a call is open when you plan. A battery of this size also has fire safety and permit rules: read whether a business battery is safe.

What happens when you ask us to look at your truck charging?

We build DC charging for trucks, with a business battery behind it, and we start from your routes and your connection.

1. Step 1: Send us your quarter-hour data or your latest invoices, your connection size, and the fleet you plan: number of trucks, battery size, daily kilometres, return and departure times.
2. Step 2: If data is missing, we can measure your consumption for a short period first. Our monitoring software shows consumption per phase, with reports per minute, hour or day.
3. Step 3: Analysis and sizing: how much charging fits overnight, which trucks need a daytime top-up, and whether a battery or a heavier connection is the better route.
4. Step 4: Technical design, installation and commissioning.
5. Step 5: Monitoring and support.

Our business battery systems range from SME installations to modular systems up to 1 MW, with chargers up to 180 kVA controlled on Victron equipment, combined with solar power and storage.