Poland’s push to electrify buses and commercial vehicles is arriving as grid connection constraints make it harder to add large new electricity loads.
In 2025, Poland’s energy regulator URE recorded 4,897 cases where grid operators refused requests to connect new projects to the electricity network. Those projects were collectively seeking 107GW of connection capacity. That means thousands of projects seeking to add new electricity demand were unable to secure the grid connections they had requested.
That constraint is becoming more relevant as transport electrification gathers pace.
Electric buses already account for a growing share of new European bus registrations. In the first half of 2026, electrically chargeable vehicles accounted for 27.7% of new EU bus registrations, up from 21.6% a year earlier. Poland’s bus market grew by 78% over the same period, making it the EU’s fourth-largest bus market.
Trucks have been slower to electrify with charging requiring high power and potentially taking vehicles out of operation. Diesel still accounted for the overwhelming majority of EU truck registrations in H1 2026 – over 92% – while electrically chargeable trucks reached 4.8%.
Speaking at the New Mobility Congress (KNM) in Katowice, Barak Sas, European Business Development Lead at wireless charging company Electreon, argued that electric fleets are exposing the limits of charging infrastructure designed around the operating patterns of combustion-engine vehicles.
“We buy big batteries today that can take up 40% of the vehicle cost or weight,” Sas told the audience, adding that operators need to carry enough energy to cover routes between charging opportunities.
For larger fleets, that creates a second problem at the depot. Multiple vehicles charging at the same time can create a concentrated peak in electricity demand, while installing enough high-power chargers can require additional space and grid capacity.
Sas believes that distributing charging across a vehicle’s journey could reduce the amount of battery capacity needed to cover the same route.
“Bring power to the vehicles, not vehicles to the power”
Sas described the approach Electreon is pursuing as a shift in how charging infrastructure is designed. “Bring power to the vehicles, not vehicles to the power,” he said.
The company is developing wireless charging systems that can be embedded into roads and installed at depots, allowing vehicles to receive power without relying entirely on large charging sessions at a fixed site.
“The objective is not ‘no grid investment’,” Sas said. “It is to avoid building the grid around the worst possible charging peak.”
Electreon’s technology is being tested on a 1.5km section of the A10 motorway south-west of Paris. The company says the road can provide up to 300kW to a loaded truck, with the charging equipment installed underground.
Sas argued that wireless charging could sit alongside plug-in infrastructure, with conventional charging retained for exceptions while wireless systems handle routine charging at depots and on routes.
“It is about not needing to charge and the truck not needing to stop on the way,” he said, adding that avoiding charging stops could also reduce operators’ reliance on whether a conventional charger is available or functioning.
Electreon has modelled a potential application on the 575km freight corridor between Warsaw and the German border. Its example would electrify 115km of road, or 20% of the route, and deliver 120kW of wireless power to a truck while travelling. The company estimates this could add 143km of range to a truck with a 438km battery range, enough to cover the full corridor without a charging stop.
Power demands take focus in Poland
Electreon is not the only company working on ways to manage the power demands of electric transport in Poland.
Czech battery-swapping company BattSwap is exhibiting on the show floor at KNM as it prepares to launch pilot projects in Warsaw alongside VeloHub. Its system replaces a depleted battery in under three minutes according to the company, while the removed battery is charged gradually, mainly outside peak hours. BattSwap says each station draws a maximum of 130kW from the grid and can serve around 30 cars a day.
The wider question for Poland is how new electric transport loads can be connected without concentrating demand in a small number of high-power sites. As fleets electrify, charging infrastructure will increasingly have to be tactically planned alongside the grid capacity available to support it.
