Germany has opened its first-ever section of "eHighway" as part of its Elisa program, which involves the government and German multinational conglomerate Siemens. Hybrid cargo trucks have conductor rods on top of their cabins, which allows them to run on electricity alone on the Siemens eHighway while charging its batteries, and switch back to its hybrid engine when on normal highways. Although this is certainly a major and ambitious project undertaken by Germany, it is not too surprising given Siemens' impressive patent portfolio in the Energy Financial Settlement sector. One of its recently issued patents is directed to a smart EVSE, showing that Siemens has the proper technology to interface the growing number of electric vehicles with a country's existent electric grid.
