Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles, presented its path to sustainable transportation at the IAA Transportation 2024 trade show in Hanover. The company’s focus was placed on the topics of decarbonization and digitalization.
Daimler Truck’s display features the battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 truck as its trade fair highlight. With its new e-flagship, the manufacturer intends to decarbonize long-distance haulage, which is responsible for two thirds and thus the largest part of CO2 emissions in truck traffic.
The high battery capacity of more than 600 kilowatt hours and a new, particularly efficient electric drive axle developed in-house enable the eActros 600 to achieve a range of 500 kilometers without intermediate charging. This range is achieved under very realistic conditions reflecting standard usage with 40 tons gross combination mass; this figure may also be significantly exceeded depending on driving style and the route involved.
The eActros 600 will be able to travel much further than 1,000 kilometers per day. This is made possible by intermediate charging during the legally prescribed driver breaks – even without megawatt-charging – provided the charging facilities are available.
This summer, two near-series production prototypes participated in an almost seven-week test run to demonstrate the operational performance of the eActros 600, traveling more than 15,000 kilometers through 22 European countries. It was the most extensive test run in the history of Mercedes-Benz Trucks. Each of the two e-trucks traveled with a 40-ton gross combination mass and used public charging stations exclusively to charge. The vehicles successfully demonstrated the high energy efficiency of the eActros 600 throughout the tour: Over the entire duration of the trip, the prototype equipped with special equipment to measure consumption was able to achieve an average driving consumption of 103 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.
Calculating the energy content of Diesel, this would translate into a consumption of around 10 liters per 100 kilometers, which would have been impossible to achieve with a conventionally powered truck. On numerous daily stages of the tour, it would have even been theoretically possible to achieve ranges of more than 600 kilometers without intermediate charging. On average, it was possible to cover with recuperated energy around 25 percent of the eActros 600’s drive power consumed.
Depending in particular on the route, topography and temperature, daily consumption ranged between 85 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers – during the downhill trek from Madrid to Bilbao (approx. 360 kilometers) under very good road and weather conditions – and 140 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers from Alta to the North Cape (approx. 240 kilometers) with a lowest temperature of 7 degrees Celsius some of which consisted of unpaved roads. Along the journey, some 30 journalists from 20 European countries, most of the time behind the wheel, put the operational performance of the other prototype to the test – not only with regard to consumption but also, for example, in terms of handling dynamics. Even with this vehicle, the consumption was only around 6 percent higher on average. This means that the stated range of 500 kilometers with one battery charge proved to be a realistic planning factor over the course of the trip.
Daimler Truck is celebrating the start of series production of the eActros 600 at the end of this November at the Mercedes-Benz Wörth plant. The first customer vehicles of the eActros 600 are due to be produced and registered before the end of 2024. Also, the Mannheim, Kassel and Gaggenau Daimler Truck plants play an important role here. They supply the components required for the battery-electric drive of the eActros 600, such as the electric axle, transmission components and the front box, which combines numerous high-voltage and low-voltage components and is located in the former installation space of the combustion engine.
Since sales began at the end of last year, Daimler Truck already recorded 2,000 orders for the eActros 600 and there are also letters of intent totaling a four-digit figure.
