Mercedes-Benz unveil new fully electric truck

Revealed overnight, the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is a pure electric truck with a claimed range of up to 200 kilometres, and is designed for intra-city goods delivery or “short radius distribution”.

The Urban eTruck has a wheelbase of 4900mm, and is a three-axle rigid truck. It features electric motors next to the two wheels on the rear axle, with each motor rated at 125kW of power and 500Nm of torque.

Powering the two motors is a lithium-ion battery pack that’s situated within a “crash proof” location in the truck’s frame and have a total capacity of 212kWh.

When on the road, the battery pack is recharged via regenerative braking. Back in the truck’s depot, the Urban eTruck connects to the grid via its Type 2 Combined Charging System port and is capable of handling up to 150kW of charging power.

Mercedes-Benz claims that when hooked up to a charging station, a completely drained battery pack can be recharged within two to three hours.

According to the German automaker, the Urban eTruck weighs around 1700kg more than a comparable diesel-engined truck.

A lot of this penalty will be cancelled out if the EU Commission carries out its plans to allow three-axle rigid trucks with alternative drivetrains a maximum permissible gross vehicle weight of 26 tonnes, or a tonne more than their internal combustion counterparts.

No word on when a production version of the Urban eTruck might hit the market or how much it will cost.