The eActros crossing the Alps. Road tests in South Tyrol, Italy
This is another step forward towards serial production, which is about to start this fall in Wörth, as confirmed last week during the 'Shaping the Now and Next' event.
Some Mercedes eActros trucks are currently in the Italian region of South Tyrol, where they are undergoing road tests in quite challenging conditions. This is another step forward towards serial production, which is about to start this fall in Wörth, as confirmed last week during the ‘Shaping the Now and Next’ event held by Mercedes-Benz Trucks and reported in this post.
The eActros is the very first full-electric Mercedes truck to enter series production. The official launch happened just before the summer, while the iconic truck for waste collection will follow in 2022. Depending on the version, the eActros draws its power from three or four battery packs – each with a capacity of around 105 kWh. The maximum capacity of 420 kWh enables ranges of up to 400 kilometres to be achieved. The eActros can be charged with up to 160 kW: the three battery packs need a little over an hour to charge from 20 to 80 per cent at a normal DC rapid charging point with a charging current of 400 A.
The tests on the eActros in South Tyrol
During the tests carried out in South Tyrol, the electric trucks tackled a total of 54,000 metres of altitude. The highest point of the trip was reached during measurement runs at the Kaunertal Glacier, at a height of 2,750 metres. In order to validate the trucks’ performance and durability, the testing engineers at Mercedes-Benz Trucks then subjected the electric vehicles, which were loaded to their gross vehicle weight of 27 tonnes, to an extremely gruelling series of tests in the area surrounding the city of Bolzano.
As a matter of fact, the region’s terrain is perfect for conducting vehicle tests with full drive power along extreme uphill and downhill routes. At the same time, the basin in which Bolzano is located is ideal for drives at very high temperatures, which sometimes rose to over 40°C during the tests. The batteries of the two three-axle trucks for heavy-duty distribution transportation were recharged exclusively at public charging stations along the whole route from Germany through Austria and into Italy. Moreover, the Alpine terrain enabled the engineers to make particularly extensive use of the vehicles’ energy recovery feature, which can be exploited by driving with foresight.
