The journey was carried out using the LeShuttle Freight service operated by Eurotunnel and involved a battery-electric truck operated by Kuehne+Nagel. While the crossing itself produces no direct emissions, the test was designed to assess whether electric long-haul operations are now technically and operationally feasible across borders, rather than to showcase vehicle performance alone.
The electric truck completed a round trip of around 1,700 kilometres, travelling from the UK to Germany and back across five countries. The vehicle was a battery-electric DAF XF from the New Generation range. It carried a 12-tonne payload and was operated by a two-person crew.
Charging took place at both depots and public charging hubs along the route, including locations in France and Belgium.
At the start of the journey, the truck was fully charged at Kuehne+Nagel’s East Midlands Gateway depot using a megawatt-scale charging system supplied by Voltempo. During the journey, additional charging stops were made at public sites operated by Gridserve in the UK and by Milence on the continent.
Channel Tunnel as a test case for electric freight
The electric DAF XF on the LeShuttle Freight service, becoming the first battery-electric heavy-goods vehicle to complete a freight crossing through the Channel Tunnel.
The Channel Tunnel is one of Europe’s most critical freight links, with more than one million trucks using the crossing each year. Until now, the use of fully electric heavy goods vehicles on this route had not been demonstrated in real-world operations.
According to Eurotunnel, allowing electric HGVs to use the LeShuttle Freight service removes a potential bottleneck for zero-emission road transport between the UK and continental Europe. However, the company has not indicated that electric trucks currently account for more than a marginal share of overall cross-Channel traffic.
The test was carried out as part of the UK government-backed eFREIGHT 2030 project, which forms part of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme. The initiative aims to gather operational data from early electric HGV deployments rather than to validate individual vehicle models.
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Operational feasibility with caveats
An electric DAF XF operated by Kuehne+Nagel charging at the company’s East Midlands Gateway depot before departing on a multi-country test route.
While the journey demonstrates that cross-Channel electric freight is technically possible, it also highlights the planning effort still required for long-haul electric operations. Charging stops had to be pre-planned, and access to high-power charging infrastructure remains uneven across Europe.
Kuehne+Nagel acknowledged that route planning for electric long-haul transport still involves additional complexity compared with diesel operations, particularly when crossing borders. The company said that the expanding network of public high-power chargers is improving feasibility but has not yet removed all operational constraints.
The test run was carried out under controlled conditions and does not necessarily reflect the day-to-day realities of all international haulage operations, particularly those involving higher payloads, single-driver crews or tighter delivery schedules.
