Why ePIcenter? - Einride

23/05/2022
Einride
Einride is a Swedish technology company leading the transition to sustainable transport. We do that by developing and providing freight mobility solutions based on electric and autonomous vehicles. Einride was founded in 2016 and became the world’s first company to operate an autonomous, electric heavy vehicle on a public road in 2019 with its groundbreaking Einride Pod. The Einride Pod is a new type of vehicle that is all-electric and designed specifically for autonomous drive, it has no driver’s cab but can be monitored from a distance. Today, Einride operates the largest fleet of electric trucks in Europe with major multinational partners as customers.

Why ePIcenter?

- Collaboration

Our mission is to speed up the transition to a sustainable transport system and we do that by combining the opportunities that digitalisation, electrification and automation brings. However, this is a huge task and not something we can do by ourselves. We need to collaborate with research partners, suppliers, potential customers and other stakeholders that share the same mission. ePIcenter project consists of a consortium with a wide range of different stakeholders and entities, sharing a strong background and experience in implementation of EU funded projects promoting sustainable and enabling digitalization, electrification and automation in freight transport.

- First industrial PhD

We are convinced that the digitalisation of freight is necessary to understand when and where to deploy electric and autonomous transport solutions. That is why we in ePIcenter focus our effort on the modeling of the transport system and the project has given us the possibility to bring in our first industrial PhD, Albin Engholm. Albin is developing a proof-of-concept version of a strategic freight transport market model tool that will help us understand where it makes most sense to deploy autonomous and electric freight transport.

Einride

“It’s exciting to continue my PhD project at Einride within the ePIcenter project. I have previously worked at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with economic modeling of autonomous road freight transport and I am now further developing that work in the project. I am building models that can help us analyze the market potential and success factors for electric and autonomous transport in Europe. It’s important that we understand how our technology should fit in the logistics system to contribute to a better future transportation system. The combination of modeling and demonstrations in ePIcenter is an important step to build knowledge in that area.” - Albin Engholm

- Testing breathtaking technologies through real life demonstrations

Some of the key objectives of ePIcenter project are the evaluation of feasibility, capability, sustainability and practicability of all tools and innovations to be implemented within the project, as well as the increase of the understanding of the impact of new disruptive technologies on global freight flows through analysis and validation of results. For the fulfillment of the above mentioned goals, a set of business case demonstrators are going to be realized, that is in line with Einride’s ambition to go electric and autonomous by testing, verifying and validating the technology through pilots and real case demonstrations.

Einride
Einride

“ePIcenter is a great opportunity to communicate and promote that shipping not only in Europe but also all over the world can be safer and cleaner by deploying new technologies and tools. Through the ePIcenter project, concepts related to connectivity, loading/unloading and integration with other modes of transport of Einride’s electric and autonomous truck, the Pod, will be tested. Specifically the demonstrations will be realized both in a restricted area at the testtrack of AstaZero, one of our ePIcenter partners in Borås, and at the premises of one of our key customers, confirming the adoption of new technologies from end users & industries for achieving the targets of lower costs, better safety and zero emissions. ePIcenter is a great example for us of how research and EU funding can challenge companies and industrial partners to work together in deployment of new tools, concepts & technologies that support realization of green, sustainable shipping & logistics in Europe”. - Anastasios Koutoulas

For further details, please contact:

Albin Engholm, Industrial PhD Candidate Einride/KTH (albin.engholm@einride.tech)

Anastasios Koutoulas, Project Coordinator Einride (anastasios.koutoulas@einride.tech)