Mercedes-Benz Trucks is starting practical trials for its all-electric heavy-duty eActros truck.

The retail and logistics service provider Hermes is the first of 20 customers in different sectors who will integrate the electric truck into their fleets. Each customer will use a near-series 18 or 25-tonner in their normal operations for one year to test it for day-to-day suitability.

The aim is to realize locally emission-free and quiet operation of heavy-duty trucks in cities. The test series is divided into two phases with ten customers each, and covers a period of around two years.

Every type of customer operation will make specific demands on the eActros. Hermes will test a 25-tonner mainly on a 50 km long route between Bad Hersfeld and the Hermes logistics Center in Friedewald, northern Hessia. The route passes through hilly landscape and is covered six to eight times each day. This makes at least one charging process necessary between tours. The range of the eActros is up to 200 km. The vehicle was handed over to Hermes in Bad Hersfeld in September. Further customer handovers will follow before the end of the year.

The practical trials with the eActros are an important milestone on the way to series production. We want to use the comprehensive findings to realise electric trucks that are economically comparable to diesel trucks for inner-city distribution from 2021. Our focus is on the operating range and cost of the batteries, and also on the infrastructure necessary for operations in our customers’ commercial fleets.

—Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks

Practical operation of the eActros by customers is preceded by intensive advice from the experts at Mercedes-Benz Trucks. Above all this defines the specific customer requirements and the corresponding variant of the eActros, and clarifies aspects of the necessary infrastructure.

All the test customers transport goods in city traffic, and will use the eActros for assignments otherwise carried out with conventional diesel trucks—but in completely different sectors and categories.

The goods concerned range from groceries to building supplies and raw materials. Depending on requirements, the customers will receive the two-axle 18-tonner or the three-axle 25-tonner. The body variants range from refrigerated and box bodies to bulk goods and tarpaulin bodies.

The other customers participating in the first test phase will gradually receive an eActros in the next few weeks. They are: Dachser, Edeka, Kraftverkehr Nagel, Ludwig Meyer, pfenning logistics, TBS Rhein-Neckar and Rigterink in Germany; and Camion Transport and Migros in Switzerland.

Architecture specifically configured for electric drive. The frame of the Mercedes-Benz Actros is used as the basis for the eActros. Otherwise the vehicle architecture has been configured specifically for an electric drive system, with a high proportion of specific components.

The drive axle, for example, is based on the ZF AVE 130 that has already proved its worth in hybrid and fuel-cell buses from Mercedes-Benz, and has now been fundamentally revised for the eActros.

The drive system comprises two electric motors located close to the rear-axle wheel hubs. They have an output of 126 kW each, together with a maximum torque of 485 N·m each. The gearing ratios turn this into 11,000 N·m each, resulting in a performance that is comparable with that of a diesel truck.

The maximum permissible axle load stands at the usual 11.5 tonnes. The energy comes from the 240 kWh lithium-ion pack. These have already proved their worth in service with EvoBus GmbH, so they can no longer be considered as prototypes. Depending on the available charging capacity, they can be fully charged within two to eleven hours (at 150 and 20 kW).

Daimler has been gaining experience with electric trucks since 2010, and since last year it has had its first series-production, fully electric truck in the market and in customer hands: the Fuso eCanter light-duty truck.

The first eCitaro buses will be delivered from the end of the year, and will go into practical operations in the context of so-called customer-oriented driving trials.

In the van sector, the eVito from Mercedes-Benz Vans has been orderable since November 2017 and deliveries will commence after this year’s International Commercial Vehicle Show (IAA). The eSprinter will follow in 2019.