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Class 8 Semi e-Mobility by Daimler's Freightliner beats Tesla Freightliner website Daimler website Daimler has been big on talking about their electric class 8 semi's and how they will have them out in truck as well as bus form. Yet with all the interesting concepts they have built, it seems they have chosen to take Tesla head on in it's own backyard and with that even beat them to the market. Freightliner has two trucks they have completed the engineering on, their full size Class 8 semi called the eCascadia is a heavy duty highway tractor designed for local and regional distribution runs. This new electric semi will have 730 peak HP, 250 mile range, 550 kWh battery pack with 80% recharged in 90 min. Their medium duty truck designed for local distribution, pickup and delivery for inner city use is a 480 peak HP, 230 mile range, 325 kWh battery pack with an 80% recharge in 60 min truck called the eM2 106. Yesterday in Portland Oregon, home to Daimler Freightliner division, they rolled out these two trucks with a promise to have them in full production and on sale by the start of 2021. Yet the bigger news as reported by Reuters who was at Freightliner for the news event and rides in these new EV trucks was that Freightliner will deliver 30 of each truck to various existing Freightliner customers this fall for field-testing around the US. This will allow them to tweak their powertrain and driver interface in the truck before going full production. Daimler as the world's largest truck maker has much to lose if they let Tesla or pretty much anyone else grab the leed for electric trucks. According to the story from Reuters, Navistar International Corp has partnered with Volkswagen to delivery Class 8 and medium duty EV Trucks by 2022 to the market. Freightliner is planning as mentioned above to have their trucks on sale in 2021 while Tesla has stated they will have their trucks on sale in 2020. Yet Tesla is known to run 1-3 years behind their goals. Freightliner has 40% of the North American heavy-duty truck market which is a $39 billion dollar a year market. Martin Baum, head of Daimler Trucks which overseas Freightliner says that they see a fast big conversion to EV trucks for local delivery and inner city use where reduced exhaust pollution and noise is key as Cities put up regulations that ban diesel trucks from the roads. Yet diesel will have a long life still especially in long-haul trucking where range anxiety and refueling time is critical. Daimler's R&D investment in Freightliner of Portland Oregon is a $2.9 Billion US dollars investment for these trucks and an additional $500 million for recharging, connectivity and self-driving development of these trucks. Reuters Story
