Collaborative Infrastructure Planning for Freight Electrification

Wednesday, April 15 | 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Location: Cambridge Innovation Center

The logistics sector accounts for roughly 20–25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with road freight responsible for a significant share. Two major developments are reshaping the path to decarbonization: the emergence of heavy-duty electric trucks and the rapid growth of digital and telematics platforms that enable better coordination and shipment consolidation across logistics providers. This project brings these trends together to understand how collaboration can accelerate the deployment of reliable, high-power charging infrastructure along key medium- and long-haul freight corridors. This workshop will describe MCSC-funded research on this topic and develop a plan for engaging other stakeholders in collaborative funding of multi-stakeholder infrastructure development for a freight charging network. Our goal is that MIT research will inform the planning of such a charging network.

The research includes three key elements. First, we develop frameworks to measure when and how collaboration creates value—identifying where shared charging investments reduce costs, improve utilization, and make electrification more viable for a wider range of operators. Second, we apply these insights to real freight-flow data to pinpoint corridors and regions where collaboration is most likely to succeed, helping stakeholders prioritize where charging infrastructure should be built and at what scale. Third, we develop optimization tools that translate these insights into concrete, implementable infrastructure plans, including charging locations, capacity needs, and cost-sharing arrangements that can support stable multi-stakeholder participation. Overall, the project provides practical guidance for industry partners and policymakers seeking to accelerate heavy-duty electrification. It delivers data-driven insights, decision tools, and collaborative planning approaches that can help reduce investment risk, improve network performance, and support the broader transition to low-carbon logistics.

Facilitators: 

• Saurabh Amin, MIT Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems (LIDS)
• Alexandre Jacquillat, MIT Associate Professor of Operations Research and Statistics, Sloan School of Management