Daimler Trucks presented the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck in Stuttgart yesterday, as the brand’s first fully electric truck. With an admissible total weight of up to 26 tonnes, and a range of up to 200 kilometres, the series production of the Urban eTruck is scheduled for the beginning of the next decade.
Also read – This semi-autonomous Mercedes-Benz Future Bus just drove 20 KM inside Amsterdam all by itself
Technically the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is based on an existing, heavy-duty, three-axle, short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribution truck. However, the entire conventional drive-train has been replaced by a new electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs – derived from the electric rear axle which was developed for the Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid bus.
The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three lithium-ion battery modules. This results in a range of up to 200 km – enough, reckons Mercedes-Benz for a typical daily delivery tour. The batteries are housed in a crash-proof location inside the frame.
Also read – Mercedes Highway Pilot: Autonomous drive technology in long-distance trucks
As the EU Commission is in favour of increasing the permissible gross vehicle weight of trucks with alternative drives by up to one tonne, Mercedes-Benz thinks that this will more or less level out the weight surplus of the electric drive. This will raise the permissible gross vehicle weight of the Urban e Truck from 25 to 26 tonnes, which will bring the original extra weight down to 700 kg compared with a directly comparable IC-engined truck.
