Episode 58 – Grid Connections, TCO Parity, and the Truck Charging Buildout – with Voltix

Public charging, not battery technology, is quietly becoming the biggest obstacle to electrifying Europe's trucking fleet. A truck can't simply pull up to a standard DC charger built for cars; it needs dedicated infrastructure delivering 600 kilowatts, 800 kilowatts, or even a full megawatt, sized to refill a battery inside the driver's mandatory 45-minute regulatory break. Building that infrastructure at scale, along the right corridors, with the right grid capacity, is a very different challenge than rolling out passenger-car charging, and it's one Europe has barely started solving. Louis Dupasquier is uniquely placed to talk through it. He's the CEO of both Voltix and Easy Charge, two charging companies inside the Vinci Group, giving him an end-to-end view that spans small-format AC networks on French streets and the E-Born network in the southeast, all the way up to the megawatt-class truck charging stations Voltix is now building along Europe's highways. Louis's path here runs through the French Ministry of Energy, six years at Vinci deploying thousands of high-power chargers across the French motorway network, and the 2023 founding of Voltix specifically to tackle truck charging. Weeks before this episode went live, Voltix and its parent Vinci Concessions closed close to 90 million euros, alongside Épopée Gestion and ADEME Investissement, to fund the network's next phase. In this conversation, Louis explains why 2025 was the tipping-point year for electric trucks, how France and Germany are each building their own path to TCO parity with diesel, why Germany's fragmented grid landscape makes connections so much harder than in France, and why he thinks Europe's grid connection rules need to change entirely. He also lays out Voltix's rollout plan across five European countries through 2028, and makes the case for why megawatt charging matters even beyond the regulatory break itself. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Intro & episode overview  2:14 – Louis Dupasquier's path: from the French Ministry of Energy to double CEO at Vinci  4:29 – Why Voltix exists: the case for battery-electric trucks over hydrogen and biofuel  6:04 – The 2023 study that defined the bottleneck: public charging for trucks  9:14 – The 2025 tipping point: the Mercedes eActros 600 and real-world proof  13:43 – TCO parity in France vs. Germany, and the coming EU carbon price on road transport  16:21 – Grid bottlenecks: why France is an "El Dorado" and Germany's grid is fragmented  23:06 – What makes Voltix different: Vinci's infrastructure DNA and operational excellence  26:05 – Public charging only: en-route and destination charging for long-haul trucks  29:23 – The rollout plan: first station in Vierzon, and the 2027-2028 roadmap  31:03 – Expanding to five countries: Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden  33:05 – Megawatt charging, MCS vs. CCS, and the future of induction charging  37:51 – Recap, the 90 million euro funding update, and closing thoughts WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • Why public charging infrastructure, not battery technology, is the real bottleneck standing between Europe and electric long-haul trucking. • Why 2025 was a turning point for the industry, driven by real-world performance data from Mercedes' eActros 600 on long-haul routes. • How France has built a policy framework, purchase subsidies, depot-charging installation subsidies, and fiscal over-amortization, that already gets regional electric trucks to TCO parity with diesel. • Why Germany's toll exemption for electric trucks makes it just as strong a TCO story as France's, despite a much more fragmented grid to navigate. • How the EU's planned expansion of carbon pricing to road transport, expected around 2028, will further tilt the TCO math toward electric. • Why Louis argues Europe needs to abandon "first come, first served" grid connections in favor of anticipatory planning, using Vinci Autoroute's own highway grid-connection strategy as a working example. • How Voltix is using battery storage as a bridge to open charging stations even where grid connections are limited or delayed. • Why Voltix is building every station with both MCS and CCS connectors, and Louis's case for why a full megawatt of charging power could eventually let truck charging happen outside of drivers' regulatory breaks entirely. NOTABLE QUOTES "We cannot charge a truck with a tractor with its trailer on a DC charger for light vehicles. It just doesn't fit. So we need a dedicated infrastructure to charge electric trucks." — Louis Dupasquier "One of the rules, the European mindset we have to change, is the first-arrived, first-served rule. We have to plan the grid connections. We know we will need power everywhere. We should not wait anymore for people to ask for it." — Louis Dupasquier "We are not an energy company. We are not an oil company. We are not an electrician. We are not a gas company. But we are an infrastructure manager." — Louis Dupasquier ABOUT THE GUEST ...