Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/730281
4 www.bigrigowner.com O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 COVER STORY > Daimler Trucks, parent company of Freightliner and Western Star, intro- duced in late July the industry's first take on an electric-powered truck, besting electric vehicle maker Tesla and upstart Nikola Motor Company, both of whom announced plans this year for a heavy-duty electric truck. On July 27, Daimler Trucks rolled out its Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, the first fully electric truck with a total weight of up to 28 tons. Stefan Buch- ner, head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, says the market launch of this tech- nology is conceivable by the beginning of the next decade. Daimler Trucks has already demon- strated the day-to-day suitability of the fully electric truck in the light dis- tribution segment with its Fuso Canter E-Cell, which has been in customer trials since 2014. The Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty, three-axle short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribu- tion truck, but developers revised the drive concept. The entire conven- tional drivetrain was replaced by a Daimler introduces industry's first fully electric truck Tesla, Nikola say they are not far behind