The Milence charging point behind the trucks shows a live output of 1,000 kW during the IAA demonstration
(Image courtesy of Milence)
Milence, Europe’s leading public charging operator for heavy-duty trucks, put its own infrastructure through a live test at IAA Transportation in Hannover, running trucks from Daimler Truck, MAN Truck & Bus and Scania through the same megawatt charging point. Each truck reached 80 percent or full charge inside the 30 to 45 minute rest break EU law already requires. The demonstration doubled as proof that Milence’s network, not just the MCS standard, can handle real commercial traffic.
Milence’s ownership shapes what the demonstration actually shows
Milence is jointly owned by three of the demonstration’s participants. The company is an equally owned joint venture between Daimler Truck, TRATON Group and Volvo Group, founded in 2022 with 500 million euros in initial funding to build shared charging infrastructure regardless of truck brand. Daimler Truck and TRATON’s two marques, MAN and Scania, cover two of Milence’s three shareholders, so this demonstration is closer to three co-owners proving their own infrastructure works than three independent rivals doing so.
That ownership structure has not slowed the build-out. Milence currently runs close to 40 charging parks across nine European markets and plans to expand to 70 by the end of 2027, with more than half built to support MCS.
How the megawatt charging point performed
The charging point Milence built for the demonstration paired an Alpitronic HYC1000 system, rated at up to 1,000 kilowatts, with a Pixii PowerBase XLP battery storage unit rated at up to 1 megawatt and 2 megawatt hours of capacity. The battery buffer let Milence run the high power demonstration without drawing the full load directly from the grid, a configuration relevant to any operator considering a site away from a major substation.
Why the OEMs say charging inside the rest break matters
MAN has fitted MCS hardware as standard on eTGX and eTGS trucks since July, and says the resulting charge window, which sits inside the 45 minute break EU rules already require after four and a half hours of driving, lets the eTGX cover more than 1,000 kilometres a day within the same working hours as a diesel truck. Scania put its baseline MCS output at 1,000 amps and 750 kilowatts, with headroom to exceed 3 megawatts as the technology matures, and said it is among the first suppliers to fully implement new vehicle-to-charger cybersecurity requirements. Mercedes-Benz Trucks framed the demonstration as evidence that battery electric long haul, exemplified by its eActros 600, is ready for daily commercial use.
Europe’s megawatt charging rollout still lags Milence’s own pace
Milence CEO Anja van Niersen said megawatt charging is already fit for practical use in electric trucking, and that the IAA demonstration proves the interoperability needed for the next phase of long haul electrification. Europe, she said, must now accelerate infrastructure buildout along its main freight corridors for the technology to reach its potential.
VDA managing director Jürgen Mindel put a number on that gap. He said the EU will need around 35,000 publicly accessible MCS-capable fast chargers by 2030, against roughly 730 charging points currently rated above 350 kilowatts and reserved for heavy vehicles across the bloc. That figure sits close to separately published industry estimates on heavy-duty charging need, and it tracks the phased power targets the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation sets for the core TEN-T network through 2030.
Milence, MAN, Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Scania used the IAA stage to show their own infrastructure and vehicles work together at scale. Whether the rest of Europe’s charging network can catch up now depends on the infrastructure and grid investment van Niersen and Mindel both called for at the demonstration.
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