Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website World premiere of the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck: local zero emissions and quiet short-radius distribution
august 03, 2016 - Mercedes-Benz

World premiere of the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck: local zero emissions and quiet short-radius distribution

  • Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck: electric drive, modular battery concept and right weight balance
  • Electric drives for trucks becoming economically viable
  • Intelligent drive control reduces energy consumption
  • Fuso Canter E-Cell: all-electric drive is already a reality

Delivering food and products to people, disposing of waste, supplying goods to industry, trade and commerce, taking away the finished products and growing sensitivity to exhaust and noise emissions – the transport of goods in towns and cities around the world is faced with ever greater challenges. While trucks remain indispensable, the demands on them are increasing. As an alternative to the consistent gradual reduction of emissions through ever tighter regulations, the ideal solution is local emission-free mobility – in future also for trucks up to a permissible gross vehicle weight of 26 tonnes. Daimler Trucks is a pioneer in this field.

Electric drives for trucks becoming economically viable

Although electric drives long appeared to be out of the question for trucks, the economic viability of battery-electric trucks is now starting to emerge. This is because of major advances in battery technology: between 1997 and 2025, the costs are likely to fall by 60 percent. At the same time, the power will increase by around 250 percent over the same period.

Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck: electric drive, modular battery concept and right weight balance

The latest proof of this development is provided by the world #premiere of the #mercedesbenz Urban eTruck, which shows the way to emission-free mobility in short-radius distribution with heavy-duty trucks. Technically, the #mercedesbenz Urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty three-axle short-radius distribution #truck from #mercedesbenz. Apart from that, however, the developers at Daimler Trucks have totally revised the drive concept, the entire conventional drivetrain being replaced by an electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs. Their maximum output is 2 x 125 kW, while the peak torque is 2 x 500 Nm. In combination with the gearing, the torque at the wheel reaches 11 000 Nm.

The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three modules of lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of 212 kWh. This results in a range of up to 200 km – normally enough for a typical day's delivery round. Depending on the desired range, the modular battery pack can be customised by adding or removing batteries. The Urban eTruck is connected to the charging station using the Europe-wide standardised Combined Charging System (CCS) Type 2 connector. With a charging power of 100 kW, the fully discharged batteries are charged to 100 percent in two to three hours.

As the EU Commission is in favour of increasing the permissible gross vehicle weight of trucks with alternative drives by up to one tonne, this will more or less cancel out the weight disadvantage of the electric drive. This will raise the permissible gross vehicle weight of the three-axle rigid #truck from 25 to 26 tonnes, which will bring the original extra weight down to 700 kg compared with a directly comparable IC-engined #truck.

Fuso Canter E-Cell: all-electric drive is already a reality

As far as light-duty trucks are concerned, the all-electric drive is already a reality. This is demonstrated by the Fuso Canter E-Cell. Following a successful fleet trial in Portugal, the Canter E-Cell has now satisfactorily completed around six months of the first fleet trial for trucks of this kind in Germany. It will be available in future under the name of Fuso eCanter. There will be news about it at the IAA International Motor Show for Commercial Vehicles, which begins on 21 September 2016.

Its battery packs with a total capacity of 48 kWh are mounted on the left and right sides of the frame. The electric motor has an output of 110 kW, while the peak torque is 650 Nm. The range of the Canter E-Cell is over 100 km, depending on how the vehicle is used. In Europe, the batteries are charged with the same, standardised connector used also by the Urban eTruck. The vehicle can be fast-charged to 80 percent of its total capacity in just one hour.

Alongside #mercedesbenz and Freightliner, Fuso is the third major brand of Daimler Trucks and a leading manufacturer of "green" light-duty trucks. For example, Fuso Canter Eco Hybrids are in service all around the world. The second generation of the #truck has been in production since 2012. The first generation of the all-electric Canter E-Cell was launched by Fuso in 2010, with the second generation following in 2014. In parallel with the current fleet trial in Germany, Fuso is already working on the third generation, which will make the electrically powered Canter even more efficient and suitable for everyday use.