Daimler Truck World premiere of the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck

[hannaz]

Mercedes-Benz is presenting the first fully electric truck for heavy distribution operations

• Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck enables fully electric transport for the first time ever with an admissible total weight of 26 tonnes
• Ranges of up to 200 kilometres, load capacity comparable with diesel drive
• Series production for urban short-radius distribution conceivable at the beginning of the next decade
• Fuso Canter E-Cell: fully electric drive of Daimler Trucks in a light distribution truck (6 tonnes) already undergoing customer trials
• Dr Wolfgang Bernhard: "Electric drive systems previously only saw extremely limited use in trucks. Nowadays costs, performance and charging times develop further so rapidly that now there is a trend reversal in the distribution sector: the time is ripe for the electric truck. In light distribution trucks, our Fuso Canter E-Cell has already been undergoing intensive customer trials since 2014. And with the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are now electrifying the heavy distribution segment up to 26 tonnes. We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving."

Stuttgart – The world’s most successful truck manufacturer Daimler Trucks is presenting the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck in Stuttgart today, as the first fully electric truck with an admissible total weight of up to 26 tonnes. This means that in the future, heavy trucks will take part in urban distribution operations with zero local emissions and hardly a whisper. The market launch of this technology is conceivable for Daimler Trucks at the beginning of the next decade. In the light distribution sector, Daimler Trucks has already been impressively demonstrating the day-to-day suitability of the fully electric truck in customer trials with the Fuso Canter E-Cell since 2014. The development of electric trucks and series production maturity are fixed parts of the strategy of Daimler Trucks to build on our technological leadership. For this purpose a considerable part of the future investments by the truck division in the fields of research and development flow in the further development of the full electric drive.

"Electric drive systems previously only saw extremely limited use in trucks. Nowadays costs, performance and charging times develop further so rapidly that now there is a trend reversal in the distribution sector: the time is ripe for the electric truck. In light distribution trucks, our Fuso Canter E-Cell has already been undergoing intensive customer trials since 2014. And with the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are now electrifying the heavy distribution segment up to 26 tonnes. We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving," says Dr Wolfgang Bernhard, responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses at the Board of Management.

Growing urbanisation requires fully electric trucks

Better air quality, lower noise and restricted-access zones are now important keywords in large metropolises worldwide, because more and more people worldwide are moving to cities. 2008 was the first year in which more people lived in cities than in the countryside. The trend is continuing: The UN predicts a global population of nine billion people by 2050, with approximately 70 percent of them living in cities. In future, it will be necessary to transport goods in urban environments for increasing numbers of people – and with the lowest possible emissions and noise. By now large cities such as London or Paris are considering a ban on internal combustion engines in city centres in the future. That means: there will be fully electric trucks ensuring the supply of humas with food or other goods of daily needs.

Fast enhancement of battery capacity while significantly lower costs

Until quite recently, the use of fully electric drives systems in trucks seemed to be unimaginable – especially because of the high costs of the batteries coupled with a low range. The technology has now become much more mature. In particular battery cells rapidly developing further. Daimler Trucks

expects the costs of batteries to lower by the factor 2.5 between 1997 and 2025 – from 500 Euro/kWh down to 200 Euro/kWh. At the same time, performance will improve by the same factor over the same period – from 80 Wh/kg up to 200 Wh/kg.

Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks: "With the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are underlining our intention to systematically developing the electric drive in trucks to series production maturity. This means that we will begin to integrate customers, so as to gain valuable joint experience with respect to the operating ranges and the charging infrastructure in daily transport operations. Because we think the entry of this technology into the series production is already conceivable at the beginning of the next decade."

Innovative battery technology for Urban e Truck

Technically the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty, three-axle short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribution truck. In addition, however, the developers at Daimler Trucks have totally revised the drive concept: The entire conventional drivetrain being replaced by a new electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs – derived from the electric rear axle which was developed for the Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid bus. The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three lithium-ion battery modules. This results in a range of up to 200 km – enough for a typical daily delivery tour. Thanks to the integrated concept with motors adjacent to the wheel hubs, the batteries are housed in a crash-proof location inside the frame.

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 level out the weight surplus of the electric drive. This will raise the permissible gross vehicle weight of the Urban e 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 in customer operation since 2014

Where light-duty trucks are concerned, all-electric drive is already a reality. This is demonstrated by the Fuso Canter E-Cell. Fuso already presented the first generation of the fully electrically powered Canter in 2010. In 2014 this was followed by the second generation, which proved its worth in the first fleet trials in Portugal. With ranges of over 100 kilometres, the vehicles exceeded the average daily distance covered by many trucks in light-duty short-radius distribution. Under widely varying operating conditions, the trucks covered more than 50,000 km within one year. In the process the vehicless were locally emission-free and, taking power generation into account, reduced CO2 emissions by 37 percent compared to diesel engines. The operating costs were 64 percent lower on average.

Marc Llistosella, Head of Daimler Trucks Asia and President & CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks and Bus Cooperation (MFTBC): "The current generation Canter E-Cell offers our customers transport services which are not only environment-friendly, but also economical. Our test in Lisbon revealed respectable savings of around 1000 euros per 10,000 kilometres in comparison to diesel trucks."

"We at Fuso have now acquired extensive experience in the development of local emission-free commercial vehicles und we will consequently pursue this development also in future. At the Commercial Vehicles show IAA in September, will will take a step further towards series production with our next generation under the new name: Fuso eCanter,” continues Llistosella.

Current fleet trials with the Fuso Canter E-Cell in Germany

Since April 2016 the city of Stuttgart and the parcel service provider Hermes are testing five Fuso Cater E-Cell in Germany. Especially the using in the topographically very demanding environment in urban Stuttgart provides important insights for Daimler Trucks from the customer operation with regard to the further development of the fully electric drive. First results from this customer trial are expected at the beginning of 2017.

Dirk Rahn, Managing Director Operations at Hermes Germany underlined during the today’s event: "We are very proud of our successful cooperation with Daimler in the development of relevant future technologies for many years. Also regarding the current project, we accepted with pleasure the invention of Daimler to actively support the testing of the Fuso Canter E-Cell out of our logistical everyday life. Thereby, the results of our trest run are extremely positive! With regard to the growing requirements in city logistics we are now looking forward to test further vehicle classes and to bring them to market maturity soon. Our common goal: making e-mobility more economical.”

Source : Daimler

 

[hannaz]

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[Wolfgang]

Daimler Launches eCanter Electric Truck, UPS Among First Customers
JOHN O'DELL -- trucks.com

All-electric Fuso eCanter. (Photo: Daimler)

Daimler Trucks’ Mitsubishi Fuso division launched its all-electric eCanter work truck in New York City, banking on the power of the Big Apple to jumpstart widespread demand of the low-noise and zero-tailpipe emissions truck.

The company’s roster of first customers also should help the truck gain exposure.

At a launch ceremony Thursday in lower Manhattan, the company announced that its first U.S.-spec eCanters would be put into service with Habitat for Humanity New York City, the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo and Big Reuse Brooklyn, a Brooklyn-based retail store for salvaged and surplus building materials and furniture.

The daily truck operations of the non-profit organizations cover most of the city and its environs, ensuring that eCanters will be highly visible.

The company also said that the eCanter will make a West Coast debut later this year when the University of California at Irvine takes delivery of 10 of the electric trucks.

Additionally, delivery service giant UPS said it has signed on as the company’s first commercial customer, leasing three eCanters for its growing fleet of alternative energy vehicles. UPS has not yet determined where the trucks will be used.

“Electric trucks make our fleet both cleaner and quieter,” said Carlton Rose, president of global fleet maintenance and engineering for UPS. “We have a long-standing global relationship with Daimler, and we welcome the opportunity to trial the Fuso eCanter.”

The high-profile New York region makes a good launching point for the new truck, analysts said.

“We expect the eCanter will have good fits in urban duty cycles in California, Chicago and other urban areas,” said Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of Pasadena-based CalStart, a clean transportation technologies incubator.

“We are very excited with the strong message their production start sends to the market on the viability and inevitability of electric drive in key beachhead applications,” Van Amburg said.

Although it looks pretty much like an ordinary modern box truck, the eCanter shown Thursday is distinguished by the absence of tailpipes and diesel rumble. It can be configured with a variety of bodies.

Marc Llistosella. (Photo: Daimler)

“This isn’t a custom-built electric semi that looks fancy but won’t be in customers’ hands for four or five years, it’s a delivery truck that’s available now,” Marc Llistosella, head of Daimler Truck Asia and president and chief executive of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., told Trucks.com. The company uses the Mitsubishi name in its corporate name and in the U.S. but is known simply as Fuso in most of the rest of the world. Daimler Trucks also owns the Freightliner brand in the U.S.

The eCanter launch comes at a time when others are pushing into heavy-duty electric vehicles.

Tesla Inc. plans to unveil its own electric truck at its design center in Hawthorne, Calif., on Oct. 26. Cummins Inc., maker of diesel engines, recently debuted a prototype Class 7 “urban hauler” electric tractor.

Peterbilt introduced a prototype Class 8 battery-electric refuse truck earlier this year; Wrightspeed has been installing its range-extended electric powertrain in Class 8 refuse trucks since late 2016; Motiv Power Systems builds scalable electric powertrains for numerous commercial applications including refuse and delivery trucks; Orange EV builds heavy-duty electric drayage tractors for port and terminal applications; and BYD builds Class 5 through Class 8 battery-electric vans and trucks.

“I think they will make headway with this electric version of the Canter,” said Antti Lindstrom, trucking industry analyst at IHS Markit.

The medium-duty, inner-city delivery truck market “is a very realistic niche for electric trucks,” he said.

“I'm skeptical about heavy-duty electric trucks” such as the Class 8 truck Tesla is developing, “but city delivery is the way to go and Mitsubishi Fuso, with its Daimler backing, is in a very good position,” Lindstrom said.

Unlike most other electric trucks that are either retrofitted internal combustion models or the products of small start-up companies, the medium-duty eCanter is the first battery-electric commercial truck to be manufactured in series production by a major truck builder, Llistosella said.

Standard equipment on the eCanter includes six liquid-cooled, 420-volt, 13.8 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion batteries, for a total of 82.8 kWh. Payload capacity ranges up to 9,000 pounds, depending on body type. Estimated range is between 60 and 100 miles, depending on loads and factors such as terrain. Recharging time will be approximately 8 hours.

Compared with a similar diesel truck, operators of the eCanter will save about $1,000 for each 6,200 miles of driving on fuel, maintenance and repairs, according to Mitsubishi Fuso’s estimates.

The truck will be among the first from Mitsubishi Fuso that will employ Mobileye’s 6 Series Collision Avoidance System.

After Tesla “brought electric vehicles out of the nerd box and made them cool, Daimler either needed to be part of the leading team, or a defender of the status quo, and we’ve opted to take innovation by the horns and go,” Llistosella said.

The eCanter is built on the same assembly lines in Japan and Portugal where workers churn out more than 70,000 diesel Canter trucks each year.

Although high-volume mass production is possible – and planned for – only 50 eCanters will be available in the U.S. this year, Llistosella said. An additional 50 have been earmarked for Lisbon, Portugal, and 50 more for the Tokyo area, where the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores will be a major customer.

All-electric Fuso eCanter. (Photo: Daimler)

Production will increase over time, with 500 eCanters scheduled to roll off the lines in the next two years. “Larger scale production” is slated to begin in 2019, he said.

Entering the electric truck space “is still risky for us,” Llistosella told Trucks.com “We know the [truck] business well, but we don’t know the future. Will there be better batteries in 12 months? We don’t know.”

That’s why the company is taking a cautious approach to production, he said.

The first trucks will be lease-only “so that our customers are not punished for risk-taking. We will lease with upgrades to the latest technologies as things change,” Llistosella said.

Electric trucks still are pricey enough that they require government incentives. Mitsubishi Fuso said earlier this year that it expected the eCanter price will be 15 percent to 20 percent more than comparable diesel models.

“But they are getting closer to commercial viability,” Llistosella said. “The prospects are even better in the near future. This is the year we are at the tipping point and have to stop talking and start producing.”

While there are no federal government incentives for commercial electric trucks, as there are for electric passenger vehicles, several states and municipalities offer financial assistance to fleet operators looking to reduce their emissions and fuel consumption by adding electric and other alternative fuel vehicles to their operations.

“Based on the market data we track in multiple marketplaces, we expect the next few years will see a steep ramp-up in electric units sold in the medium-duty pickup and delivery and shuttle bus space, building on successes in transit buses,” Van Amburg said.

Industry analysts generally expect the next decade to be a building period – not a takeover march – for the electric commercial truck segment.

“This new technology may be important in 10 years, but it’s not driving the [truck] market right now,” said Noël Perry, analyst at FTR Transportation Intelligence. “What is driving the market is good business conditions – there’s a likelihood that 2018 is going to be a really good year.”

While customers may be exploring alternative fuel-powered vehicles and electric trucks, which are attractive for short-haul applications like refuse, bus and port drayage operations, the infrastructure just isn’t available for wide use.

“As long as the price of diesel is low, there really won’t be a need for alternative fuels, but maybe in 10 years as the range improves, the demand might be there,” Perry said.

Mitsubishi Fuso’s plans are a case in point.

The company sees demand in numerous areas of the U.S., but decided to limit its launch to metropolitan New York because it is a “hero area that a lot of people look at, and we need” that exposure, Llistosella said.

As part of its eCanter development program, Daimler Trucks said Thursday it has become a major investor in an Israeli nanotechnology materials company that is developing high-capacity electric vehicle batteries that can be charged in a matter of minutes.

The company, StoreDot Ltd., was founded in 2012 and recently showed a proof of concept “FlashBattery” with a 5-minute charging time.

Editor’s note: Trucks.com staff writer Clarissa Hawes contributed to this report.

https://www.trucks.com/2017/09/14/daimler-ecanter-electric-truck-launches/

 

[Wolfgang]

An icon goes electric: Daimler introduces its first all-electric school bus in the US
Stuttgart / Columbus, Ohio – The North American Daimler subsidiary Thomas Built Buses introduced its first all-electric school bus for series production. Starting in 2019, the “ Saf-T-Liner C2 Electric Bus“ or short „Jouley“ will drive up to 81 kids all over America to school – safely, quietly and emission-free. The160kWh battery provides a range of up to 160 kilometers. Additional battery packs are optional and offer a higher range. During the development of the Saf-T-Liner C2 Electric Bus Thomas Built Buses was able to draw upon Daimler’s electric technology resources.

Thomas Built Buses was founded in 1916 and is world renowned for its legendary yellow school buses from films and television. With a market share of 38.7 percent Thomas Built Buses is the leading manufacturer of school buses in North America (YtD 08/2017).

 

[Wolfgang]

Electric Mercedes Citaro Bus Coming Late 2018
Mercedes-Benz announced they will begin production of their all-electric emission-free Citaro in late 2018

It must be electric bus season again. After Thomas Built announced their all-electric school bus yesterday, today Mercedes-Benz started the countdown to zero-emission buses. By the end of next year, Mercedes will start production of a bus with an electric drive system based on their existing bus platform the Mercedes-Benz Citaro.

The company celebrated the production of their 50,000 Citaro recently. They’ve already been experimenting with hybrid bus technology with their Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid. The new Citaro is going to borrow the Hybrid’s wheel hub motors at the rear-axel. Energy for the bus will come with a newly designed modular lithium-ion battery pack. The modular design means that each bus could be customized to meet the specific range requirements of the route it's built to run.

The bus is going through the development cycle and is being put through rigorous trials and testing. There are already prototypes testing its operating in extremely cold temperatures in the Arctic Circle as well as the scorching summer heat of Spain’s Sierra Nevada.

Speaking on the future production, Head of Daimler Buses Hartmut Schick said, "Our city bus produces zero local emissions and is ultra-quiet through town. The engineers are currently undertaking thorough testing of prototypes of the new bus under the toughest of conditions. As the technical concept, which involves a modular system for the power supply as well as optimized thermal management, makes clear: the Citaro with battery-electric drive will set a new milestone.”

Another cool feature is the thermal management of the bus’s drive and climate control systems. Mercedes says this system will reduce consumption significantly, thereby helping to extend the range of the bus without the need for larger battery systems.

The Citaro is expected to make its world premiere at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hanover in September 2018.

Electric Mercedes Citaro Bus Coming Late 2018

 

[Wolfgang]

Zero emission and 65 billion parcels: Why we are pushing electric trucks.

By Dieter Zetsche -- Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG / Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars

Some weeks ago Bloomberg wrote the headline “Daimler Steals Tesla Thunder With Heavy-Duty Electric Truck”. Of course, we do enjoy reading a headline like that. But let me point out here that it’s by no means about stealing thunder. Instead, it’s about adding some. Because our common goal is to add as many sustainable mobility and logistics options to the mass market as possible. And that’s what we do.

Logistics are a key driver of traffic in and outside of big cities. Some 65-billion parcels are delivered the world over every year. And as we all know from our personal shopping habits this trend will likely accelerate in the future. Estimates see the amount of parcel deliveries doubling within the next ten years alone. That’s why emission- and nearly noise-free trucks, buses and vans are such a powerful lever to helping make our environment more livable. And that’s why we are dedicated to bringing more and more of them to the market.

Moving freight, moving people.

More than a year ago, we were the first company ever to present the concept of a fully electric truck for urban distribution of up to 25 tons. The “Mercedes-Benz Electric Truck” showed what’s technically feasible – and we just kept going from there …

This October, we unveiled our “E-FUSO Vision One”: a heavy-duty all-electric truck concept with a range of up to 350 kilometers (about 220 miles) on a single charge and a payload of up to 11 tons.

With the “FUSO eCanter” we already have a fully electric light-duty truck on the road that specializes in short-distance and inner-city delivery. Among our first customers in the U.S. is UPS.

And to get even closer to last-mile delivery and right up to people’s doorsteps, we are also working on fully electric vans. We have partnered, for example, with Hermes logistics, which is going to upgrade its delivery-fleet with 1,500 electric vans from Mercedes-Benz by 2020.

Daimler is making significant progress in the process of electrifying the entire supply chain. We are a leader in developing sustainable and locally emission-free logistics. Yet we won’t stop at delivering cargo. It’s just as important for us to move people in a sustainable way.

Last week we also introduced an iconic, all-electric yellow school bus from our partners at Thomas Built Buses. We call the bus “Jouley”. Jouley will be ready to silently and safely take kids to school starting in 2019. Even earlier, in late 2018, we are going to launch series-production of our all-electric city bus “Mercedes-Benz Citaro E-Cell”.

All of these examples go to show: We are dead serious about building momentum and adding some thunder to the silent revolution of future logistics. And we are already well down that road. I welcome and encourage all others to join our effort and add some thunder and impact of their own. Because we believe: sustainable logistics can really make a big difference for the environment as well as for the quality of life in our cities. And we thrive on competition!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zero-emission-65-billion-parcels-why-we-pushing-electric-zetsche/

 

[hannaz]

The fully electric eActros is ready now

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[Deleted member 25]

How is the range compared to Tesla ?

 

[Wolfgang]

^ Shorter.

Tesla Semi: 300 or 500 miles
MB eActros: 125 miles

Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, says that it will be used for short-range applications:

“We are now passing both two- and three-axle variants of our heavy-duty electric truck, the Mercedes-Benz eActros, into the hands of customers. Initially the focus will be on inner-city goods transport and delivery services – the ranges required here are well within the scope of our Mercedes-Benz eActros.”

The batteries are located in eleven modules – three of these are located in the frame area and the rest are underneath.

electrek: A first look at Mercedes-Benz’s latest all-electric truck: the eActros

 

[hannaz]

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[Wolfgang]

The FUSO Vision F-Cell fuel cell powered truck debuts in Tokyo, with the V front signature?

udn

 

[Wolfgang]

Gorden Wagener explains: "The FUSO Vision F-Cell is the result of our design philosophy - a fresh interpretation of the unique Japanese truck culture. A balance between emotion and function.
It adopts our @fusoofficial Black Belt front identity where multiple functions are integrated into one volume."

 

[KiwiRob]

It makes far more sense for trucks to be FCEV's then BEV's.

 

[Wolfgang]

First eCanters arrived in Scandinavia.

Velkommen til København, eCanter!

Copenhagen / Stuttgart / Tokyo – Daimler Truck’s all-electric FUSO eCanter has arrived in Scandinavia - Europe's leading region in terms of sustainability. Two vehicles are now operating in Denmark's Capital Copenhagen. The Danish Transport Minister Benny Engelbrecht personally handed over the two FUSO eCanter to the two well-known Danish customers "Citylogistik" and "Aarstiderne".

Both customers have the goal of reducing CO2 emissions and changing transport logistics within the urban environment. In doing so, the locally emission free FUSO eCanter is just the right vehicle to offer responsible, environmentally friendly logistics and transport solutions.

Christoph Fitz, Head of Sales and Marketing FUSO Europe points out the importance of this customer handover in a new market for e-mobility as a whole: "Urbanization is a major global trend increasing the demand for goods in cities rapidly. Thus, trucks are and will remain an indispensable backbone of society. With every new metropolis in Europe that the eCanter drives in, we make a lasting contribution not only to visualizing the future of logistics in the city, but also to put it through its paces."

Improving urban life in nine European cities

The all-electric light-duty truck is FUSO’s answer to the public’s need for a zero-emission and zero-noise truck for inner-city distribution. It helps to solve the increasing noise and pollution problems in urban environments across the globe. With the handover in Denmark, the FUSO eCanter is already running in nine European cities in Germany, the UK, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver better urban living. With a range of 100 kilometres, the 7.49 tonne vehicle is well suited to meet the inner-city short-range distribution requirements of its customers.

The FUSO eCanter is the world's first all-electric light-duty truck in small-series production. In January 2020, FUSO also delivered four eCanter to two customers in Japan. This means around 150 vehicles are now running with customers in Japan, the United States and Europe. More deliveries are set to follow successively.

/2020/02/velkommen-til-kobenhavn-ecanter/

 

[hannaz]

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