ChargeHub, AXSO, and Circuit electrique representatives at an EV charging industry booth

news May 27, 2026

ChargeHub and AXSO Want to Reserve Electric Truck Charging Before the Megawatt Chargers Arrive

ChargeHub and AXSO are building an open reservation platform for electric truck charging, aiming to give fleets the route certainty they need before heavy-duty public charging scales.

By Marcus Holloway

Electric truck charging has a chicken-and-egg problem, and ChargeHub and AXSO think reservations can help crack it.

The two Quebec companies are building what they describe as North America’s first open, interoperable, neutral charging reservation platform for electric trucks. The goal is not just another app icon for drivers. It is a software layer that lets fleet operators book charging windows across multiple networks, while giving charging operators more confidence that expensive truck-capable sites will actually be used.

That sounds less dramatic than a new electric pickup or a 1,000-kW charger, but it may be one of the pieces heavy-duty EVs need before the hardware boom arrives. A fleet manager does not just need to know that a charger exists. They need to know whether a truck can physically access it, whether a trailer can pull through, whether the charging window fits the route, and whether the whole stop will keep a delivery schedule intact.

ChargeHub and AXSO announced the project earlier this month, and Electric Autonomy Canada reported May 26 that the system is still in its concept and specification phase. That makes this an early-stage infrastructure story, not a finished product launch. Still, the timing matters because Canada is talking more seriously about medium- and heavy-duty electrification while public truck charging remains thin.

What the Project Is Trying to Build

ChargeHub will lead the central reservation hub and fleet-facing interfaces. AXSO, the Hydro-Quebec subsidiary behind charging-management software for Circuit electrique, will build the reservation module that plugs into the charging-operator side.

The project is designed around OCPI 2.3, the latest version of the Open Charge Point Interface. That matters because OCPI is the roaming and interoperability plumbing that lets different charging networks, apps, and service providers talk to each other. Version 2.3 adds a dedicated reservation module, which is exactly the capability this project wants to use.

The initial ecosystem includes Circuit electrique, Nationex, and Intelcom. The Quebec government is backing the work with $450,000 through the INNOV-R PME measure under the province’s 2030 Plan for a Green Economy.

ChargeHub says its Passport Hub platform already has more than 500 active roaming connections and is integrated with more than 160,000 public charging ports across Canada and the United States. That roaming experience is the useful part here. Electric truck reservations only work if the system can connect several charging operators and fleet-management systems without forcing every carrier to build one-off integrations.

Why Reservations Matter More for Trucks

Passenger EV drivers can often tolerate some charging mess. A broken stall, a lineup, or a short detour is annoying, but it usually does not derail a commercial schedule.

Trucks are different. A delivery route has loading windows, driver hours, customer commitments, vehicle weight, trailer length, charger access requirements, and sometimes very little extra time. If a medium-duty delivery truck or future Class 8 electric tractor reaches a planned stop and finds a queue, the delay can cascade through the rest of the day.

That is why the reservation concept is interesting. It treats charging as a scheduled logistics input, not a hopeful public stop. The platform is expected to start by expanding site data that matters to large vehicles, including pull-through access, trailer-detachment requirements, and parking configuration. Those details are not glamorous, but they are often the difference between a charger being technically available and actually usable.

The bigger promise is predictable utilization. Charging operators are reluctant to spend heavily on truck-capable stations without demand certainty. Fleets are reluctant to buy electric trucks without reliable charging. A reservation system does not solve battery cost, charger cost, grid capacity, or vehicle availability, but it can reduce one of the major planning risks on both sides.

This Is Not Megawatt Charging Yet

The project should not be confused with a public megawatt charging rollout.

Electric Autonomy Canada notes that there are currently no public megawatt chargers available in Canada for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks. That is the gap this kind of software is trying to prepare for, not something it can replace. Depot charging, lower-power DC sites, and medium-duty fleet use cases are more realistic early testing grounds.

That actually makes sense. Before Canada gets a broad network of megawatt-class highway sites, fleets and charging operators need to learn how booking, routing, payment, access, and live operational data should work. A reservation system that proves itself with medium-duty trucks could become the operating model for heavier equipment later.

The companies are working on a two-year project timeline, with hopes for real-world pilots inside that window. Circuit electrique stations are expected to be part of the initial testing environment, with Nationex and Intelcom validating the system in actual fleet conditions.

The Canadian EV Angle

For Canadian EV policy, this is a useful reminder that charging infrastructure is not just a retail-car issue.

Consumer EV buyers care about highway fast chargers, home charging, and purchase incentives. Fleet operators care about those things too, but they also need route certainty, uptime, charger geometry, and software that fits dispatch systems. That is why Canada’s EV transition cannot be measured only by how many passenger crossovers qualify for rebates or how many plugs appear on a public map.

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are a smaller share of the vehicle population than passenger cars, but they carry a much bigger emissions and fuel-cost burden per vehicle. ChargeHub’s release cites Transport Canada figures saying medium- and heavy-duty vehicles represent 9 percent of vehicles on the road while producing 26 percent of transportation-sector emissions.

That is why this kind of unglamorous infrastructure work matters. If electric trucks are going to move beyond local depot routes, fleets need confidence that charging can be planned with the same seriousness as fueling, loading, and driver scheduling.

For ordinary EV shoppers, the connection is indirect but real. Better roaming, better charger data, and more reliable public charging systems tend to spill over. The same interoperability thinking behind truck reservations is part of the broader charging conversation around roaming, Plug & Charge, NACS access, and payment simplicity.

The MotorLinks Take

This is exactly the sort of infrastructure story that looks small until it is missing.

Electric trucks do not need only bigger batteries and faster chargers. They need boring, dependable systems around them: reservation rules, accurate site data, fleet software integration, charging uptime, and enough confidence that a dispatcher can build a route around electricity instead of treating it as a gamble.

ChargeHub and AXSO are not solving heavy-duty charging by themselves, and a concept-stage reservation platform is not the same as shovels in the ground for a national truck-charging network. But the idea is pointed in the right direction. Before Canada can scale electric freight, it needs the operational pieces that make charging predictable.

For fleets, predictability is the product.