Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/725427
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2016 29 Daimler rolls out electric heavy truck T he race to build an electric heavy truck just got another contestant, and last month it seized the lead. While upstart Nikola Motor Co. and Tesla seemed locked in a battle to roll out the fi rst electrifi ed truck, Daimler Trucks debuted its Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, a fully electric truck with a total weight of up to 28 tons. Stefan Buchner, head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, said the market launch of the technology is conceivable by the beginning of the next decade. Daimler Trucks already has demon- strated the day-to-day suitability of a fully electric truck in the light distribution seg- ment with its Fuso Canter E-Cell, which has been in customer trials since 2014. "Electric drive systems previously only saw extremely limited use in trucks," said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses at the Board of Management. "Nowadays, costs, perfor- mance and charging times have devel- oped further so rapidly that now there is a trend reversal in the distribution sector. The time is ripe for the electric truck, and with the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are now electrifying the heavy distri- bution segment up to 26 [metric tons]. We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving." The Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty three-axle short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribution truck, but with a revised drive concept. The entire conventional drivetrain was replaced by an electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs – derived from the electric rear axle developed for the Mer- cedes-Benz Citaro hybrid bus. Power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three lithium-ion modules, resulting in a range of up to 125 miles – enough for a typical daily delivery tour. The batteries are housed in a crash-proof location inside the frame. The cost of fully electric drive systems, coupled with their low mileage range, has made the venture prohibitive until recently. Daimler Trucks expects the costs of batteries to lower by a factor of 2.5 be- tween 1997 and 2025 – from $550/kWh down to $220/kWh. At the same time, performance is forecast to improve by the same factor over the same period – from 80 Wh/kg up to 200 Wh/kg. – Jason Cannon Daimler Trucks debuted its Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck,a fully electric truck with a total weight of up to 28 tons. The proven solution for bypassing and tolls saves time, fuel and money. 888-361-7277 PrePassNow.com ENDORSED FEATURED PRODUCT WE SUPPORT: IT'S ALL ABOUT RELIABILITY. IT'S ALL From where you sit,