MB Urban eTruck - First or what?

[G. David Felt]

G. David Felt
Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com

 

MB Urban eTruck - First or what?

 

 

July 27th Mercedes-Benz presented their first electric heavy duty truck, the Urban eTruck. This truck has a range of 200 km or about 126 miles, so long haul this is not, but inner city deliveries, this is the green solution many west coast cities have been asking for even as Paccar, the builder of Kenworth and Peterbuilt has gone full production on LNG and CNG trucks for the city to reduce the diesel emission that cities have complained about.

 

Mercedes-Benz stated yesterday that they were the first electric heavy duty truck to be shown off. This is a debatable point considering startups like Nikola Motor Company that I posted about back in May of this year had already shown off their prototype and was lining up additional funding for production. That story is found here 

The Tesla of Hybrid Trucks and UTV's, Nikola?

 

I will leave that debate up to which company truly produced the first electric truck. Especially since Fuso has had their Fuso Canter E-Cell truck actually in production since 2014. Funny thing is MB also talks about their investment in Fuso with plenty of praise here on their web site. MB Next

 

 

The point of this story is that Mercedes-Benz is focused on building and delivering an inner city eTruck for use in deliveries that will remove noise and pollution from the streets.

 

 

Wolfgang Bernhard, CEO Daimler Trucks and Buses, says this eTruck should go into production at the beginning of the next decade, so 2020 is the estimated launch of production purchasable trucks.

 

 

MB eTruck web announcement

 

So is MB first, second or is it just cool to know that silent delivery trucks will be coming to a city near you in the next few years and we will not have to breath the diesel exhaust or hear the rumble of the truck bounce off the walls of the buildings or the idling as they wait to deliver their freight. Clearly the next 5 years will be exciting as the city changes into a much cleaner area, quieter and more livable.

 

[ccap41]

I actually think this is where electric vehicles should have started and grown into "civilian" use as infrastructures grew. 

 

I freakin love the idea. I'm kind of surprised it took this long for work trucks to become electric but with the limited range I understand why. 

 

I have to assume that the quoted 126 miles should be at max capacity, right? Therefore kind of a worst case scenario situation? I don't know what kind of miles these trucks do a day but I would think a lot of shorter trips could be about 100 miles a day and this seems like it is borderline not enough capacity because when its 20 degrees out you won't get 126 miles and when its 100 degrees out...you also won't get 126 miles. 

 

I'm curious about the charge time on this as well because I have to assume the battery packs are much larger than what Tesla is using to be able to propel the mass that they will. 

 

I hope this pans out because the less pollution the better! 

[G. David Felt]

I actually think this is where electric vehicles should have started and grown into "civilian" use as infrastructures grew. 

 

I freakin love the idea. I'm kind of surprised it took this long for work trucks to become electric but with the limited range I understand why. 

 

I have to assume that the quoted 126 miles should be at max capacity, right? Therefore kind of a worst case scenario situation? I don't know what kind of miles these trucks do a day but I would think a lot of shorter trips could be about 100 miles a day and this seems like it is borderline not enough capacity because when its 20 degrees out you won't get 126 miles and when its 100 degrees out...you also won't get 126 miles. 

 

I'm curious about the charge time on this as well because I have to assume the battery packs are much larger than what Tesla is using to be able to propel the mass that they will. 

 

I hope this pans out because the less pollution the better! 

Fuso and MB both say they can charge at 220 or 440 DC Quick charge. So I would think you are looking at about 30 min on the quick charger. Also if MB is planning to have the trucks on the road starting in 2020, that gives them plenty of time to update the battery pack as we seem to be increasing density rather quickly now.

[smk4565]

I think I read about a 2 hour recharge time for this truck.  126 miles doesn't seem like a lot, but I guess if that is enough to run 5 hours, then theoretically in 12 hours this truck could do 2 shifts of deliveries with a recharge halfway through.  I love the idea of an electric truck for city use to cut down on noise and exhaust.  And some cities are already starting to have emission free zones, I think in China that will happen with how bad the air is there, they'll just ban diesel trucks from cities, so this truck could be in high demand.