New electric vehicles from Daimler point towards the future of trucking.
Daimler has announced two exciting new electric commercial vehicles that will be rolling out throughout the United States over the next few years. In even more exciting news, they have developed a concept truck that is highly connected, efficient, and electric! Why are Daimler’s new electric vehicles at the forefront of new trucking technology and why should you be interested?
New Trucks With an Electric Feel
Electric trucks are going to transform the trucking industry as we know it into something much more efficient and flexible. Urban areas present unique challenges to trucks, as they are typically very congested and have different emissions rules. Electric trucks will help eliminate some of the difficulties of operating in urban spaces. Electric battery technology is rapidly evolving so that electric commercial trucks are becoming a possibility in the very near future.
How have electric trucks become such viable possibilities all of the sudden? The demand for more efficient and long lasting cell phone batteries has greatly helped the entire battery industry. Consumers want things to be higher performing, longer lasting, and smaller—creating the perfect space to develop new quality batteries for multiple industries. In the past couple years alone, the performance of batteries has improved by over 250%, and costs have fallen by approximately the same amount.
Fuso eCanter
One of the two new vehicles being introduced by Daimler is the Fuso eCanter. It uses a synchronous electric motor with a 185 kilowatt output and a single-speed transmission. The most recent model of the truck shown had a 70 kWh battery capacity that would provide 100 km of travel without needing to recharge. The battery packs will be used in a way that they can be adapted to customer range requirements (although there will be a degree of tradeoff in terms of weight and cost). The current goal for the Fuso eCanter is to develop batteries that get trucks a minimum of 100 miles before they need to recharge, in addition to developing super chargers that can charge electric truck batteries to over 80% of their capacity within only half an hour.
Mixed Nuts
The second new vehicle that Daimler is introducing is the Vision Van electric van, developed by Mercedes. These vans are not a reality yet, and simply serve as a vision of what the future of delivery could look like. Mercedes plans to roll out these vans in Europe as soon as 2018.
Baltimore Freightliner-Western Star for All of Your Trucking Technologies
Whether you are looking to upgrade your fleet to electric trucks or simply interested in the latest electric trucking technology, you can rely on Baltimore Freightliner-Western Star. We have provided top-notch service for the trucking industry for 30 years and would love to assist you in buying a new top-of-the-line truck, finding the specialty parts you need, or repairing your truck. Give us a call toll-free at 800-832-7278 or locally at 410-685-4474, or contact us online. To find out more about what we are up to, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.
Tags: Daimler, electric vehicles, trucking news