Daimler unveils its all-electric big rig truck
Major challenge to European and US rivals
DAIMLER has unveiled an all-electric big rig truck it promises to have in production in 2021, as the German carmaker mounts a major challenge to European and American rivals, including new entrants like Tesla.
Truck buyers anticipate global regulation to curb pollution from trucks and see advantages from lower fuel and maintenance costs of electric vehicles, but a fleet technology switch is far from certain, given challenges of cost, charging infrastructure, range and the potential for heavy batteries to constrict payloads.
Daimler’s Freightliner eCascadia is an 18-wheeler with a 400km range, aimed for regional distribution and port services, while Tesla has said that its Semi – which it expects to build by 2020 – will be suited to longer-distance runs with a 805km range.
Daimler on Wednesday also unveiled a medium-duty Freightliner eM2 106, with a range of up to 370km, designed for local distribution, such as beverage delivery, which some analysts see as the “sweet spot” of the emerging electric truck market. Daimler said it would deliver a total of 30 prototypes on the two models to customers later this year for field-testing and expects to have the trucks in production in 2021.
Daimler, as the world’s largest truckmaker, has much to lose as competition for electrified trucks intensifies.
Local delivery
The company’s Illinois-based rival, Navistar International, and its partner Volkswagen, which is spending $1.7 billion (R21.66bn) on electric drives, autonomous vehicles and cloud-based systems by 2022, aim to launch their own medium-duty truck in North America by late 2019.
Daimler, with a $66.4bn market capitalisation and best-known for its luxury Mercedes-Benz brand, has a 40 percent share of the roughly $39bn North American heavyduty truck market.
Local delivery “makes an enormous amount of sense, because it doesn’t have the longrange requirements, yet puts on enough miles on a daily basis where you can get fuel savings,” said Tim Denoyer, a senior analyst at consultancy ACT Research.
Success for the larger class 8 trucks would hinge on lowering battery costs: “While electric truck sales will be fairly significant in coming years, I don’t think it will displace diesel anytime soon, especially in highway, long-haul trucking, where obviously battery capacity and range anxiety present itself,” Denoyer said.
The company will use batteries from German firm Akasol, a spokesperson for Daimler said. No final sourcing decisions on batteries have been made, however, he said.
Akasol buys lithium cells and adapts them to battery systems used by busmakers Daimler and Volvo, among others, as well as in industrial vehicles, locomotives and ships. Akasol is preparing for a Frankfurt stock market listing before the summer break.
Daimler Trucks North America chief executive Roger Nielsen said the truck’s payload had been curbed by the size of batteries.
“Overall, this is an ideal application for customers whose routes have a distinct radius and whose operating model provides time for battery recharge,” he said.
A heavy-duty commercial truck runs up to 160 000km a year. – Reuters