All well-known truck manufacturers are working to bring electrically powered commercial vehicles onto the road in larger numbers, alongside efforts to supply them with hydrogen as an energy carrier.

Now Mercedes-Benz is pushing ahead and celebrating the market premiere of its electric Actros, which is initially intended as a solo vehicle for heavy regional distribution traffic.

The permissible total weight as a three-axle vehicle with a wheelbase of 4.60 meters is 27 tons.

Boris Smith

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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Towards the end of this year, the possibility should also be created of coupling another trailer, so that the maximum 40 or 44 tons could then be moved.

In addition, Daimler Truck wants to bring an electric tractor onto the market by 2024.

With this so-called long-haul truck, ranges of up to 500 kilometers should be possible.

The E-Actros does not go quite that far, it is delivered with three or four battery packs placed in the ladder frame, which provide 336 or 448 kWh of energy.

Depending on the application, this is enough for up to 300 kilometers.

Direct current is charged up to 175 kW, Daimler believes that more is not advisable.

The possibility of using alternating current is deliberately avoided.

It is also a question of costs, and they are still immense.

Such an E-Actros, which like conventional Actros is also built at the Daimler plant in Wörth am Rhein, costs three and a half times as much.

Nevertheless, Jean-Marc Diss, Daimler Truck boss for Europe, hopes to be able to build and sell around 600 units in 2022.

Supply chain issues did not play a major role.

Daimler Truck wants to break into the electric age with power. In 2030, only half of all new vehicles should have a diesel engine, and by 2040 this should be the end of it.

In order to get there, it is said that a complete package is offered, and that the customer is given extensive advice before making a purchase.

Is the vehicle suitable for the routes that are to be completed?

Where is loading?

Daimler also wants to help with the purchase of charging stations for the depot.

An E-Actros, which at first glance cannot be distinguished from a diesel truck, is powered by a 300 kW electric motor from an undisclosed supplier.

The 400 hp are enough to survive in traffic, even with a full payload.

In addition to the camera mirrors and the whisper-quiet operation, the relatively stiff steering is striking, especially in comparison with the latest Actros as a towing vehicle, whose 12.8-liter six-cylinder has been revised and is now four percent more economical.

The E-Actros generally has air suspension. On a one-hour test drive around the Wörth plant, we needed an average of a good 59 kWh for 100 kilometers with a partial load.

However, values ​​from real everyday life with test vehicles in actual use are more meaningful.

A logistician traveled more than 8,000 kilometers in winter and had a power requirement of 84 kWh per 100 kilometers.

A meat wholesaler calculated a value of almost 104 kWh per 100 kilometers with a refrigerated box and a similar mileage as transport performance.

Nine percent of the energy required was used for cooling.

Regional traffic with routes that can be planned is already possible purely electrically, but a big question mark has to be raised for long-distance traffic.

Separate high-performance truck charging stations would be needed on the freeways.

Whether these can be realized in the medium term alongside the further expansion of the stations for passenger cars and by whom remains questionable.

But Daimler also wants to take care of that.

You have big plans.