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Growing urbanisation the impetus for Daimler Trucks’ electric ambitions

WOLFGANG BERNHARD Electric mobility has arrived for the truck

CHARGED UP The eTruck’s battery pack is located in the frame of the vehicle

E-SERVICE One of four Fuso E-Cells undergoing trials at the Stuttgart municipality

PLUG AND PLAY The Fuso E-Cell can be fast-charged to 80% of its capacity in one hour

2nd September 2016

By: Irma Venter

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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It’s quite surprising to see a heavy truck tiptoe rather than brawl its way across the tarmac. The truck in question is the proto- type Mercedes-Benz urban eTruck. The ‘e’ stands for electric, which means there is none of the familiar noisy acceleration, engine vibration, braking or diesel emissions normally associated with commercial vehicles.

The German manufacturer lifted the veil on its newest brainchild in July, at a proving ground in Stuttgart.

There remains a number of t’s to be crossed and i’s to be dotted, but Mercedes-Benz hopes to launch the eTruck onto the market early in the next decade.

By then, parent company Daimler wants to deliver a truck that has a gross vehicle weight of 26 t and a range of 200 km, with a full load, before it requires recharging.

The eTruck will be best suited to the distribution environment, where it will do last-mile deliveries, travelling shorter distances only. This means charging can happen at the warehouse, with no external charging infrastructure required.

The Urban eTruck
The Mercedes-Benz urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty, three-axle, short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribution truck.

However, Daimler Trucks has revised the drive concept. The entire conventional drivetrain is replaced by a new electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs.

The motors’ maximum output is 2 × 125 kW, while the peak torque is 2 × 500 Nm.

In combination with the gearing, the torque at the wheel reaches 11 000 Nm.

The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three modules of lithium-ion batteries, with a total capacity of 212 kWh. The battery is built into the frame of the truck.

The battery in the production model should provide a range of up to 200 km, which Daimler says is sufficient for a typical day’s delivery rounds.

The urban eTruck connects to the charging station using the Europewide standardised combined charging system Type 2 connector.

With a charging power of 100 kW, the fully discharged batteries should be charged to 100% in two to three hours.

The urban eTruck has an electrically driven axle weighing around 1 t, while the other necessary electrical components add up to a further 900 kg.

The heaviest components are the batteries, including mountings, which weigh in at 2.5 t.

This is offset by the absence of an engine, transmission, propeller shaft, differential and fuel tank, which, together, come to around 2.7 t.

This means that the urban eTruck weighs in at an extra 1.7 t.

However, as the European Union (EU) is in favour of increasing the permissible gross vehicle weight of trucks with alternative drives by up to 1 t, this will more or less cancel out the added weight of the electric power train.

Raising the permissible gross vehicle weight of the truck from 25 t to 26 t will bring the extra weight down to 700 kg, compared with a compar- able truck using an internal combustion engine.

Why Build an e-Truck?
Growing urbanisation requires fully electric trucks, says Daimler Trucks.

“Our customers face major challenges,” explains Daimler management board member for Daimler Trucks & Buses Dr Wolfgang Bernhard. “Worldwide, more people live in cities than ever before. That means more and more goods must be transported in cities. Our customers must deliver day and night, and there’s a growing desire that they do so as emission- and noise-free as possible.

“More cities are putting restrictions on truck traffic. To cite just three examples: at night and on weekends, London allows trucks over 18 t only on major thoroughfares. And from 2020, trucks will only be allowed in the city if they meet Euro VI [emissions standards].

“In Beijing, experts anticipate that, in the future, trucks will only be authorised to negotiate all municipalities if they comply with China VI emissions standards. And Paris is even considering no longer allowing any trucks with conventional drivetrains as of 2020.”

Bernhard says Daimler Trucks’ customers want to be ready for a changing environment, through the use of an emission-free electric truck.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks head Stefan Buchner believes that the eTruck will herald a new chapter in logistics.

He describes customer interest in the eTruck as “gigantic”.

Costs, however, remain a concern, as electric-drive vehicles are still much more expensive than trucks with internal combustion engines.

There are, of course, the arguments that electric trucks require zero fuel and less maintenance as there is less component wear.

These facts could indeed make a sizeable difference to any fleet operator’s bottom line. The UK’s Freight Trade Association notes that 2015 fuel costs made up around 27% of the total yearly vehicle operating costs of a 26 t truck.

However, potential fuel savings are not yet significant enough to offset the cost of electric drive systems, owing largely to the high cost of the batteries, coupled with low range.

The good news is that the technology has grown more mature, says Bernhard, with the economic viability of battery-electric trucks increasingly becoming a reality.

Daimler Trucks expects battery costs to fall 60% from 1997 to 2025. At the same time, power is expected to increase by around 250%. (A decade ago, the battery in a 25 t truck would have made up one-third of its total weight.)

The right timing is always crucial for innovation, notes Bernhard.

“Whoever delivers a new technology too early will lose money. So far, nobody has earned any money with electric mobility. And whoever delivers a new technology too late loses the market.

“Electric mobility has arrived for the truck. Now is when the time is right.

“We are determined to be on the forefront of development in this emerging segment from the very start. We have made the electric truck an integral part of our technology strategy.

“Our goal is to provide our customers with electric trucks in the near future that are economical and reliable.”

Why Not a Bigger Truck?
If a 26 t truck can be electrically powered, why not also the true heavyweights?

Considering current technology, the battery range would be too short, at around 40 km to 60 km, says Daimler Trucks, which is especially poor, considering that bigger vehicles are often used for long-haul purposes.

Also, powering a 40 t truck with batteries to drive 800 km a day would mean that the battery would weigh around 15 t, using today’s available technology.

Anything is possible in the future, however.

E-Trucks in Real Life
The urban eTruck is not Daimler’s first move into the electric truck market. Its Fuso sub- sidiary has also produced the all-electric Canter E-Cell light-duty truck.

Fuso presented the first generation of this truck in 2010. In 2014, it was followed by the second generation, which proved its mettle during fleet trials in Portugal.

Eight trucks covered more than 50 000 km in the year they were in use in Portugal.

The E-Cell offers a range of more than 100 km. The vehicle can be fast-charged to 80% of its total capacity in one hour, at 360 V/100 A. Alternatively, the vehicle takes seven hours to recharge at 230 V/16 A.

On the basis of the prevailing costs of diesel and electricity during the test period in Portugal, the E-Cell’s operating costs were up to 64% lower than a conventional diesel truck.

“We at Fuso have now acquired extensive experience in the development of local emission-free commercial vehicles,” says Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks & Bus Cooperation CEO Marc Llistosella.

“In September, we will take a step further towards series production with our next genera- tion under the new name: Fuso eCanter.”

The third-generation model will see between 50 and 100 vehicles undergo testing in commercial fleets in Europe, the US and Japan.

Llistosella says Fuso has managed to reduce the price tag on the E-Cell over the last two years, with the aim to achieve another 50% saving in order to render the vehicle competitive with diesel-powered trucks.

Four E-Cells are currently undergoing testing in the city of Stuttgart and one at parcel service provider Hermes.

The first results from these customer trials are expected at the beginning of 2017.

Hermes Germany operations MD Dirk Rahn says his company has used the E-Cell since July, driving around 1 100 km to date.

While delivering a host of positives, such as easy handling, negatives include the fact that pedestrians and motorists do not hear the vehicle approaching; the E-Cell’s expensive price tag; the 100 km range, with 150 km considered more suitable; and the fact that charging infrastructure is limited to the depot.

Stuttgart Municipality Refuse Removal is testing four E-Cells in its fleet, two with tipper bodies and two with load boxes.

The vehicles will be tested until next year, so that they can operate under all seasonal conditions. The cold is particularly bad in sapping range from an electric vehicle.

Stuttgart Municipality Refuse Removal CEO Dr Thomas Hess says vehicle emissions are a particular problem in Stuttgart, as the city lies in a valley.

The E-Cells in use at the council travel between 50 km and 90 km a day.

The range is not that of a diesel vehicle, but it has proven to be sufficient, says Hess.

“The 2 t payload is also sufficient.”

Another positive is that the E-Cell is “very quiet”, but this, however, is not always that safe when considering the presence of pedestrians.

“We have not experienced any problems in operating the vehicles,” says Hess. “Despite the limitations in payload and range, the vehicles are able to perform their duties.”

Hess believes that the Stuttgart municipality will be willing to pay up to a 20% price premium on electric vehicles for the difference they make in reducing emissions levels within the city.

The E-Cells are serviced at the municipal depot, with mechanical staff already being retrained to look after electric vehicles.

One of the regular drivers of the E-Cells at the municipality says the seats in the E-Cell are not too comfortable, with the suspension also a bit harsh. However, positives include the absence of gear shifting, instant acceleration, the quiet power train, the absence of vibration in the cab, as well as the fact that the vehicle is highly responsive.

Driving the vehicle is indeed easy. Engineering News could drive the vehicle, with no truck driver training, in a safe, controlled environment, with absolute ease.

Chicken or Egg?
With the South African truck industry struggling to secure a supply of clean fuel to ensure it can bring the newest internal combustion engine technologies to the country, will the domestic market ever see the introduction of an electric truck?

The same question can be asked about the autonomous truck, driving itself over long distances on highways where it is possible to do so – another Daimler project currently in the works.

Bernhard is willing to predict that South Africa would most probably see the introduc- tion of Euro 6 (clean fuel trucks) first. This should be followed by autonomous trucks because of the long distances trucks travel in South Africa.

“It would make the roads safer and the trucks would be more fuel efficient.

The electric truck would be number three,” he says.

Daimler Trucks & Buses South Africa executive director Kobus van Zyl concurs that Euro 6 trucks would be widely available in South Africa before electric and autonomous vehicles.

“However, we also believe that we will see a faster progress to electric vehicles in the public transport industry, through initiatives such as the implementation and expansion of bus rapid transit systems.”

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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