We’re going to need A BIGGER PLUG

Mercedes-Benz is going hard and going early on a range of zero-emissions trucks

Electric Mercedes-Benz SUVs are sooo 2020. The real plug-in action is happening with electric Mercedes-Benz trucks.

The maker’s first pure-electric truck, the eActros, goes into production in October this year. Another, the eEconic (now there’s a mouthful) will follow in 2022. The company has promised the eActros LongHaul around 2025.

Sadly, the eActros isn’t the futuristic machine pictured at the top of this story. It’s the other one that looks more like a . . . truck.

Mercedes has been thinking out loud about electric heavy vehicles since 2016 and began testing the eActros in 2018 as part of an “Innovation Fleet”, getting potential customers in on the act at ground level.

The lithium battery pack makes passenger BEVs look a bit paltry: it boasts a maximum 420kWh capacity (for reference, the Mercedes-Benz EQA is 65.5kWh), made up of individual 105kWh units. There are twin liquid-cooled electric motors (400kW peak or 330kW continuously) and a twospeed transmission.

The eActros can be ordered with either two or three axles, with a gross weight of 19 or 27 tonnes respectively.

Maximum gross weight with trailer is 40 tonnes.

Range is up to 400km . . . depending on the load of course. With DC fast charging up to 160kW, Mercedes-Benz claims the eActros can be charged from

20-80 per cent in just over an hour. The electric powertrain means a noise level of only 60dB, making the eActros suitable for night deliveries.

Mercedes-Benz is gearing up its Worth am Rhein factory for a big future in zero-emissions trucks. It’ll be CO2-neutral from 2022 and there’s a plan in place until 2029 to prepare for more electric models . . . including hydrogen.

Hydrogen? Maybe then we can have that cool-looking truck concept the company has teased us with.