This week, Germany opened a new electrified eHighway for trucks developed by Siemens that they hope will help cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by allowing hybrid cargo trucks to charge their batteries while they are on the move.
On Tuesday, the German government introduced the technology on a 10km-long stretch of Autobahn near the city of Frankfurt.
The programme, called Elisa (electrified innovative heavy traffic on the Autobahn), is an environment-ministry-sponsored project involving the german industrial giant Siemens and authorities from the state of Hesse, where it is taking place.
The electrification system went into effect on 10 km (6.2 miles) of autobahn, allowing trucks with the necessary equipment mounted to their roof to use the electrified cables to travel at speeds up to 90 kph (56 mpm) without needing to burn any diesel fuel, converting back to diesel-powered internal combustion once they leave the electrified stretch.
The trucks - which have conductor rods called pantographs added to the top of the cabin - must be going less than 96km/h to successfully make a connection.
Siemens said truck operators can save €20,000 ($22,370) over 100,000 km (62,137 miles) on fuel costs using their system on top of the emissions reduction from electrifying freight vehicles.
It also said that if a driver swerved to the left or right while connected to the cables, it would not detach.
The 10km stretch of the A5 Autobahn will be tested until 2022, after which a decision will be made on whether or not to expand the project, which has so far cost the government a total of 14 million euros.
Germany also spent 70 million euros to make a special hybrid truck with Scania and Volkswagen for the track.
This video from Siemens shows how the project is intended to connect sea ports with cities using the trucks and the eHighway.
Trucking demand is booming as the global economy continues to grow, threatening to undo any progress made in addressing greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change.
Germany's transportation ministry recently published a study saying 80% of Germany's truck traffic could soon become electrified, according to Deutsche Welle.
Siemens and the German government hope that electrified highways will be one part of the overall solution to averting the worst effects of climate change going forward.
Two more eHighway tracks are already being built. One is in the northern region of Schleswig-Holstein, the other is in Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany.
Germany said it wanted to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 40% by 2020, by 55% by 2030, and up to 95% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.
Siemens also trialed the eHighway in Carson, California, in November 2017.