Skip to footer

Daimler to produce electric commercial trucks in Europe

These trucks will be made available to a small number of European test customers for year-long trials, with deliveries slated to begin later this year.

|
Ted S. Warren/AP/File
Truck and automobile traffic mix on Interstate 5, headed north through Fife, Wash., near the Port of Tacoma.

Following successful trials, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler plans to produce a small run of all-electric large commercial trucks for the European market.

These trucks will be made available to a small number of European test customers for 12-month trials, with the deliveries slated to begin later this year.

The decision to go forward with a production vehicle was based on positive reactions to the Mercedes-Benz Urban e-Truck concept unveiled at last fall's 2016 IAA Commercial Vehicles trade show.

While Daimler's press release referred to the upcoming production all-electric model as a "heavy-duty" truck, the Urban e-Truck was a slightly less large medium-duty model.

It featured a 212-kilowatt-hour battery pack, allowing for a claimed range of 124 miles.

The tractor was powered by electric motors mounted to the front and rearmost of its three axles, producing a combined 250 kW (335 hp) and 737 lb-ft of torque.

The production truck will be sold under the Mercedes-Benz brand name, and operators will get support from the automaker's road-testing department during the trial period.

Customers will have the option of a box body, refrigerated box body, or flatbed for the latest electric truck.

The Urban e-Truck was a medium-duty vehicle intended primarily for shuttling cargo relatively short distances around cities, and it's likely the low-volume production model will be aimed at similar duties.

Short-range operations keep vehicles close to charging stations, circumventing the range issues that currently bedevil efforts at electric long-haul trucks.

Daimler is currently in talks with "around 20 potential customers from the disposal, foodstuffs, and logistics sector," Mercedes-Benz Trucks boss Stefan Buchner said in a company press release.

Deliveries will start in Germany, followed by other European countries.

Daimler has no apparent plans to offer the electric truck in the U.S., but it's possible that a different electric vehicle could arrive in North America soon.

Alongside the Mercedes truck, Daimler is planning a low-volume production run of the lighter-duty eCanter truck from its Fuso brand this year.

The Fuso eCanter has already been supplied to specific customers for trial programs, but Daimler hopes to make the model more widely available.

This latest initiative will see around 150 vehicles distributed to select customers in the U.S., as well as Europe and Japan, the company said.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Daimler to produce electric commercial trucks in Europe
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2017/0221/Daimler-to-produce-electric-commercial-trucks-in-Europe
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe