Two further battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros are now in operation in Switzerland: one for the logistics service provider Camion Transport and another one for the retail company Migros. The official handover took place at Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Schlieren near Zurich. The vehicles are part of the so-called eActros “innovation fleet” to test heavy-duty electric trucks with customers.
The 18-tonne truck with Camion Transport is used to transport general cargo for commerce, trade and industry in St. Gallen, while the 25-tonne truck in operation with Migros transports goods for supermarket branches in the Zurich area. Each eActros has to cover around 150 km per day, which is well within the range of the eActros’ reach of up to 200 km. The batteries are recharged at the customers’ depots in the evening.
Jürg Lüthi, CEO Mercedes-Benz Trucks Schweiz AG: “In Germany the locally emission-free eActros is already undergoing intensive practical testing with various customers. With Camion Transport and Migros, we are now happy to welcome the first two Swiss customers from different business sectors to further enrich our tests.”
eActros delivers locally emission-free to the city centre for Camion Transport
The Mercedes-Benz eActros is on the road for Camion Transport mainly as part of its sustainability project “Emisson-free to the City Center”. The electric truck transports general cargo from the Schwarzenbach Camion city hub to the nearby St. Gallen microhub. The eActros is also able to flexibly serve other delivery points in the St. Gallen urban area. The cargo is transported in a swap body with a lifting platform.
Environmentally friendly supermarket delivery for Migros
Migros uses the eActros to supply the Migros supermarket branches in downtown Zurich and the surrounding area from its distribution centre in Zürich-Herdern. The routes pose different topographic challenges for the vehicle (e.g. mountainous terrain). The eActros for Migros has a box body with refrigeration option, which can be used to transport entire pallets of goods such as chilled fresh goods.
The refrigerated replacement box on the eActros used by Migros is the “W.KO COOL” model supplied by Schmitz Cargobull. It has optimum insulation for energy-efficient transport of refrigerated goods. This robust body is ideally suited for intensive day-to-day use. The purely electrically operated cooling unit functions completely emission-free and is specially designed for use in distribution traffic.
The eActros: emission-free alternative for urban distribution
The eActros is based on the frame of the Mercedes-Benz Actros. However, the vehicle’s architecture has been resolutely designed around an electric drive system and thus features a high percentage of vehicle-specific components. Two electric motors near the wheel hubs of the rear axle provide the drive, each delivering an output of 126 kW and 485 Nm maximum torque. Furthermore, the transmission ratio used sees this brought up to 11,000 Nm on each wheel. The drive power is therefore on par with a conventional truck. Lithium-ion batteries with 240 kWh capacity provide the eActros with the required energy. Depending on the available charging output, the batteries can be charged completely within as little as two hours (at 150 kW).
About the eActros “Innovation Fleet”
As part of practical testing of the eActros “Innovation Fleet”, the 18 or 25-tonne vehicles are put through their paces by 20 customers from various sectors as part of their regular daily operations. The tests of this “Innovation Fleet” are made up of two phases, each with ten customers. Feedback from these practical tests flows directly into further development of the eActros for series production. The aim is to make clean and quiet distribution in urban areas possible with heavy-duty trucks from 2021 onward. The first eActros has already been in operation with a customer since September 2018.
The development and testing of the heavy-duty electric truck in short-radius distribution operations is sponsored as part of the “Concept ELV²” project to varying degrees by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).
