TREE: Transition to efficient electrified forestry transport

TREE addresses the societal challenge of effectively transitioning to electrified heavy road transportation. It focuses on the forestry sector, which constitutes 20% of Sweden's heavy road transportation.

A transition to electric vehicles within the forestry sector would significantly impact the reduction of Sweden's CO2 emissions, while the results and knowledge gained will be transferrable to other industries. To shift to fossil-free transport, a systemic transformation is required, where we collectively develop business models, logistics planning, and technology.

The project's overarching goal is to ensure that 50% of the forestry sector's new trucks are electrified by 2030. To achieve this, a system demonstrator spread across seven sites is planned. The demonstrator will encompass innovative technical solutions, business models tailored for electrified transport, and testing of planning strategies and tools. The project will also generate knowledge about the impact of policies and external factors while developing a joint industry roadmap for transition.

Key facts:

Skogforsk, the forestry sector's joint research institute, is the project coordinator along with the network organization CLOSER at Lindholmen Science Park. The project involves 20 additional partners, including forestry companies, logistics firms, haulage companies, charging infrastructure providers, technology companies, and universities.

The project runs from November 20, 2023, to November 19, 2026, with support from the FFI (Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation) program at Vinnova.

CLOSER's role

CLOSER acts as the deputy project leader and is responsible for two major work packages: 'Demonstration of Electrified Logistics Solutions', which involves coordinating activities across the 7 different sites, and 'Electricity & Charging', focusing on testing and evaluating various setups associated with it.

Vision, Purpose, and Goal

Vision

Efficient, electrified forestry transports as part of the green transition.

Purpose

Accelerate the electrification of forestry road transports by removing system barriers.

Overall goals

Contribute to having 50% of the forestry sector's new trucks electrified by 2030. Electrifying 50% of truck transports equates to reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 260,000 tons per year.

Project Goal

Iterative demonstration and evaluation of logistics solutions with electrified vehicles.
Understanding the design and selection of locations for charging stations and the role of mobile energy hubs in the system.
Verified insights into the strengths and weaknesses of various strategies for logistics and transport planning.
Development of co-created business models within the value chain.
Creation of comprehensive system understanding.
Accelerating the transformation towards electrified transports beyond the project partners.

Implementation: System demonstrator with sites as hubs for knowledge-building

To successfully achieve the electrification of heavy transport, requires a combination of several smaller and larger technical solutions, along with changes in business models, organization, behavior, infrastructure, regulations, and policies. These need to be pieced together like parts of a puzzle. The project will realize solutions and changes through an extensive system demonstration spread across seven different sites. The demonstrated solutions include electric timber and chip trucks, electric HCT (High Capacity Transport) vehicles, mobile energy hubs, e-trailers, and advanced route planning. These sites will serve as hubs for knowledge building, research, and innovation in vehicle technology, electric and charging systems, transport planning, business models, and system understanding. Based on the knowledge gained from the project, a roadmap for transitioning the forestry sector's transports will be developed and communicated.