Daimler Trucks is establishing a global organization for electric mobility called the E-Mobility Group. To kick that off, the company announced that its division in the United States, Freightliner, will be adding two new electric commercial trucks to its offerings: the Freightliner eCascadia and the eM2 106.
The Freightliner electric trucks will add to the production Mercedes-Benz eActros and the FUSO eCanter trucks as well as the Mercedes-Benz Citaro city bus and Thomas Built Saf-T Liner C2 Jouley school bus. All of these will now fall under the newly-formed E-Mobility Group.
Daimler says that over the course of 2018, the company will hand over an innovation fleet of 30 units of the two new Freightliner electric trucks to its first customers in the US for fleet and operations testing. The two new trucks are slated for the North American region and are based on already-established models.
The Freightliner eCascadia, based on the Cascadia class 8 truck, offers 730 horsepower (544 kW) through its motors. Those are powered by 550 kWh of batteries, which give the truck a fully-loaded range of up to 250 miles (400 km). Charging to 80 percent can be achieved within 90 minutes, resulting in an additional 200 miles (320 km) of range.
The Freightliner eM2 106 is a local distribution truck and last-mile delivery service vehicle. Its power output can be as high as 480 horsepower (358 kW). Battery size is 325 kWh for a total of 230 miles (370 km) of expected range. Recharge time to 80 percent is about 60 minutes, adding 184 miles (300 km).
Source: Daimler Trucks
One great advantage I see here with Daimler (Freightliner) is already well versed in large scale manufacturing and trucking. They have a large network already established.
Daimler has also been generating a lot of cash flow so they can afford R&D.
Another one I am interested to follow is the unit that Cummins revealed a little while ago.
So who's screwed again?
Oh and the "way cheaper" comment. lolz Good one.