The biggest obstacle to electric trucks in Europe is the power supply at the warehouse, not the trucks themselves. Most logistics sites were built for lighting, forklifts and offices. Their grid connection is far too small to charge a fleet of trucks as well.

In short: fleet electrification depends on how much electricity a site can draw from the grid. Where that connection falls short, an on-site battery (BESS) can close the gap while a grid upgrade is still pending.

This guide explains in plain terms how much power truck charging needs, how a battery compares with a grid upgrade, and what to check before you commit to a site.

• Grid connection (or grid capacity): the maximum amount of electricity a site can take from the public grid at any one moment. Think of it as the width of the pipe between the grid and your building.
• kW and kWh: kW measures how fast power flows, the width of the pipe. kWh measures how much energy you use over time. For scale, a home EV charger draws around 11 kW.
• Grid congestion: the local grid is full, so the grid operator cannot give a site more capacity, sometimes for years.
• BESS and EMS: a battery energy storage system (BESS) is a large battery on site. An energy management system (EMS) is the software that decides when the battery charges and when it releases power.

Buying a truck charger is the easy part. Charging hardware is widely available and proven. Getting enough electricity to that charger is where projects stall.

Most European industrial estates were designed decades ago, long before anyone planned to charge trucks there. In busy regions the local grid is already full. A request for a bigger connection can take years, and some sites cannot send surplus solar power back to the grid at all.

That turns power supply into a site selection criterion. It belongs on the same checklist as clear height and the number of dock doors, not on a to-do list after the lease is signed.

It depends on three things: how fast trucks need to charge, how long they stand still, and how many charge at the same time.

A WDP site in Raamsdonksveer, the Netherlands, shows both the problem and a way through it.

• What the site needed: around 200 kW at peak times.
• What the grid could deliver: 69 kW, roughly what six home EV chargers draw, with no option to send surplus power back.
• The solution: solar panels, a battery to store their energy, and an energy management system to steer both.
• The result: 269 kW of available power, expandable step by step, and a building that keeps running during grid congestion or a power cut.

The site did not wait years for the grid operator. It closed the gap on its own terms.

The two can go together, but they solve different problems.

A grid upgrade makes the pipe permanently wider. It is the most complete long-term fix. In congested regions, though, the timeline is set by the grid operator, not by you or your landlord.

A battery works like a water tank. It fills slowly from the grid or from solar panels, then releases a lot of power at once when trucks plug in. It works as soon as it is installed, and it keeps the site running if the grid goes down.

1. How much grid capacity does the site have, and how much of it is still unused?
2. Can the site send surplus power back to the grid, or only draw from it?
3. Are solar panels or a battery already installed?
4. Can the electrical installation grow step by step as the fleet grows?
5. If a grid upgrade is needed, how long will it realistically take, and who applies for it?

If most answers come back as ​“we would need to look into it”, your electrification plan carries real risk. A site with clear answers removes most of it.

WDP builds energy infrastructure into its warehouses: solar panels, batteries, energy management and EV charging. It does so through its Green Mobility Hub approach and offers EV charging stations across its European portfolio.

Nassau Sneltransport electrified its fleet this way without paying for the charging infrastructure itself. For Einride, WDP is building the Netherlands’ first dedicated charging plaza of its kind for electric trucks.

Want to go deeper? Read about depot charging versus en-route charging, why warehouses need battery storage for EV charging and build-to-suit versus an existing lease. Looking for a site? Raamsdonksveer already has battery storage and expandable power in place.