“Tesla and Technoking Elon Musk might get all the attention for the all-electric Tesla Semi, but they’re far from the only manufacturer looking to make big rigs go electric.
Freightliner, the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in America, is hard at work testing trucks with actual customers — with Tesla still stuck on the test track.
WHAT’S NEW — Freightliner recently announced that its test fleet of electric semi-trucks have traveled 700,000 miles, Daimler spokesperson Fred Ligouri says. That’s the equivalent of roughly 233 cross-country trips between Boston and San Diego.
‘These are real trucks hauling real freight in the real world and racking up zero emissions mile after mile — in excess of 700,000 thus far,’ Ligouri tells Inverse. ‘Through this process of co-creation with our customers, we are ensuring durability and reliability for series-built trucks, incorporating purposeful innovations, and furnishing the opportunity for more and more fleets to experience eMobility.’
Freightliner has two types of trucks in this “customer experience” development fleet. The first is the eM2 box truck, a Class 6/7 truck used for local distribution of things like furniture, food, and other goods — the type commonly seen with a ramp on the back, double-parked all over Manhattan.
Then there’s the eCascadia, a Class 8 tractor that is likely what you imagine when you think of a Smokey and the Bandit-style big rig. Those are being used for what’s called local- and regional-distribution and “drayage” — a term for the movement of cargo containers by trucks between different types of shipping, like from a sea port to a rail yard, or to a warehouse in the same city.
Both of these are perfect for big electric trucks because they have a more limited need for range. Local box trucks and local shipping rarely exceed 200 miles in a day round trip, and the eM2 and eCascadia sport 230- and 250-mile ranges, respectively.
HERE’S THE BACKGROUND — The company has a fleet of 38 preproduction electric trucks running around Southern California in the hands of regular customers as part of the company’s Electric Innovation and Customer Experience fleet.”
View the whole story here: https://www.inverse.com/innovation/freightliner-customers-have-driven-electric-semis-700k-miles