A 40-ton Mercedes-Benz e-truck just drove 1,000 km with only one stop to charge

The Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 e-truck drove more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) through the Alps with only one charging stop.

Development engineers successfully completed a run across the Alps in the eActros 600 prototype to test its long-distance haulage. They loaded the prototype up with 40 tons of weight and then drove it from Stuttgart, Germany, via the Swabian Jura mountain range to Bolzano, Italy. 

Despite steep inclines and challenging roads, the Mercedes-Benz e-truck drove the 530-km trip without having to stop to charge and arrived in Bolzano after driving for around seven hours. After charging up, the engineers headed back to Stuttgart – once again, with no intermediate charging.

So the 40-ton eActros 600 made an over-1,000-km round trip with only one stop for charging. Mercedes says that the successful run happened because of a combination of an “efficient drive, high battery capacity, and high-performance recuperation.”

The eActros 600 has three lithium-iron-phosphate battery packs and an installed total capacity of over 600 kWh in series production. It has two electric motors with an output of 400 kW and a peak output of over 600 kW. 

In September 2022, Mercedes said it would have a range of “around 500 km” (310 miles) on a single charge. The long-haul electric truck is designed to charge from 20-80% in under 30 minutes. Engineers have designed the eActros 600 to deliver 1.2 million km on the road over 10 years.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks is going to manufacture both a tractor unit and rigid variants of the eActros 600 at market launch. It’s going to make its official debut on October 10, and it’s expected to go into production in 2024.

Photo: Daimler AG

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