Engineering news
Following a successful trial in Portugal last year, Daimler Trucks’ Fuso brand has launched a second fleet test of its zero-emission battery-operated trucks, this time in Stuttgart, Germany.
The municipality of Stuttgart will test four 6-tonne Fuso Canter E-Cells over a period of 12 months in a tough everyday working environment. Two vehicles will have hydraulic tipper bodies that will be used in road construction and landscaping. The other two vehicles will have box bodies and will be used for furniture transport and refuse collections.
Parcels company Hermes is also participating in the trial, using the vehicles for urban deliveries.
Fuso’s first trial of the fully electric Canters in Portugal saw eight E-Cells driven by courier, freight-forwarding and horticulture businesses, as well as a local authority, covering 155,000 miles. The year-long trial revealed that the vehicles take around seven hours to charge at a 230V/32A power point, but that dropped to one hour at a fast-charging system.
The trial also demonstrated that the vehicles stood the test of daily use in short-distance deliveries and urban transport. With a range of more than 62 miles, the Canter E-Cell vehicles exceeded the average distance that many trucks used in light-duty short-radius distribution cover each day.
Based on the cost of diesel and electricity in Portugal, the trial also produced savings in operating costs of up to 64% compared with a conventional diesel truck. That equates to £775 saved per 10,000km (6,200 miles).
Marc Llistosella, president of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus and head of Daimler Trucks Asia, is convinced that the German fleet test of the E-Cell will confirm the results from Portugal.
He says: “Even though Germany presents different climatic conditions, with the municipality of Stuttgart posing a topographical challenge owing to its location in a basin, this is a task the Canter E-Cell will master, based on our past experience. It will also demonstrate that it is not just environment-friendly, but also economical in operation.”
Externally, the only difference between the Fuso Canter E-Cell and its diesel-engined or diesel-electric powered counterparts is the battery packs, which are mounted on either side of the frame, and together weigh 600kg. An electric powertrain takes the place of the 3-litre diesel engine behind the unchanged Canter cab. The permanent-magnet motor delivers 110kW of power to the rear axle via a single-speed transmission.
The chassis frame is approved for a total weight of 6 tonnes. The 3,400mm wheelbase offers space for bodies up to 5m in length, the weight of which must be subtracted from the 3-tonne chassis loadbearing capacity. The remaining payload of just over 2 tonnes is more than adequate for most urban short-radius distribution tasks.
Torque of 650Nm, available from the very first second of operation, gives the 6-tonne truck almost the same acceleration as a passenger car. As with all vehicles in this weight class, the top speed of the Canter E-Cell is limited to 56 miles per hour.
When the driver comes off the accelerator, the electronics switch to energy recovery mode, the degree of which can be set to two different levels. The electric motor then becomes a generator, feeding the braking energy generated during the rolling phase back to the lithium-ion batteries on the frame. Drivers who regularly use energy recovery in the Canter E-Cell can achieve a range of more than 100km on one charge.
The E-Cell is so quiet that the truck is fitted with a pedestrian warning system, which produces a buzzing sound, making the vehicle ideal for use in noise restricted zones at night or in the very early hours of the morning.
Dirk Rahn, managing director operations at Hermes Logistics Group, explains: "The project is part of our long-term climate protection programme, under which we intend to systematically halve the CO2 emissions of our fleet by 2020. We are very pleased to have found a reliable partner for this project."
Fuso says it is already working on the next generation of the Canter E-Cell – with the firm goal of making it even more economical.