Battery-swap Etruck
TESTING OF NEW ZEALAND’S FIRST BATTERY-SWAP electric truck has now included an inter-city freight run.
Etrucks’ XCMG E700 6x4 battery electric tractor unit hauled a loaded Mainfreight semi-trailer on an Auckland to Hamilton return run in the latest phase of its road test programme.
For the depot-to-depot run the gross weight of the quad-axle semi and the Chinese-built tractor unit was 41 tonnes.
Etrucks director Ross Linton says 30% of the truck’s battery capacity remained at the end of the trip.
A repeat Auckland-hamilton return trip with another trucking company, running at 39t all-up, saw 39% of battery capacity remaining.
The XCMG E700 test truck has a 282kwh battery that Linton says is a “sweet spot” – achieving a good balance between sufficient range and not being excessively heavy.
The battery-swap truck is designed to be used in conjunction with a robotic gantry crane that can swap the battery in minutes.
The truck had previously done trial runs over the Bombay Hills, but Linton says of the loaded inter-city testing: “It was great to give a serious customer a chance to look at the truck.”
More XCMG E700 battery-swap trucks have been built for NZ – two 6x4 tractor units and the first of four 8x4 rigids due to arrive here soon. One of the 8x4s is a tanker, the others are tippers.
Linton says that new XCMG models are also being developed and he hopes to debut a new E100 metro light-duty electric truck at Feildays.the 4.5t GVM truck has a 61kwh battery, a 180km estimated range and a single-speed transmission.
The E300 model – already in use in NZ, mainly in garbage disposal and delivery work – gets an upgrade, with a single-speed transmission and a 30% increase in battery capacity.the updated E300s are also expected here mid-year.