Mercedes-Benz puts another eActros to the test

Mercedes-Benz Trucks all-electric eActros rollout is gaining pace with another customer delivery for on-road testing.

Meyer-Logistik, based in Hesse, Germany, received the new 25-tonne electric truck which will be put to the test for one year.

The truck features a refrigeration unit for transporting temperature-sensitive foodstuffs from the warehouse to different supermarkets in the centre of Hamburg.

It will take on a delivery route of around 100 kilometres. The eActros has a range of up to 200km

Meyer-Logistik is one of twenty customers from different industries that are putting the heavy-duty electric truck into their fleet.

Each of the customers will put a version of either the 18 or 25-tonne variant through its paces in real operations and will test the vehicles for the daily work in urban areas.

The palette ranges from food to building and industrial materials. The body variants range from refrigerated and box bodies to bulk goods and tarpaulin bodies.

The aim is to make locally emission-free and quiet driving a reality in cities by 2021 with series heavy-duty trucks.

It also aims to be as economically viable as with a diesel truck.

The first eActros has been in action since September with a customer, and the second one was handed over at the beginning of October.

The rest of the first phase of vehicle hand-overs will be completed by the end of the year.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks head of key account management Oliver Kraft says the practical tests with the eActros are an “important milestone for us on the way to the series product”.

“Each customer makes a valuable contribution towards the further development right up to series production by using and testing the eActros in a very special area of everyday operation.

“Our experts are available to our customers around the clock. Before starting, we have given our customers intensive advice. That includes working together to define their individual requirements, choose the corresponding variant of the eActros and sort out questions about the required infrastructure.

“Before the tests started, our experts gave the drivers and the customers’ dispatchers thorough coaching,” Kraft says.