Heavy Duty Trucking, March 2019

HDT MARCH 2019 40 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM lmost everything at the annual CES electronics show has a plug on it and the trucks on display were no exception Daimler and Peterbilt both brought new battery electric trucks to Las Vegas this year and while they arent yet ready to be turned loose on the open road fleet testing of this new equipment is scheduled to get underway by mid summer Peterbilt already has five trucks in customer hands for testing and validation including the Model 520EV refuse truck and the Model 579EV daycab tractor Introduced at CES in January was the Model 220EV intended for pickup and delivery service We have refuse covered we have regional haul covered and now we have inner city pickup and delivery covered said Peterbilt General Manager Jason Skoog We think those three applications are going to have the most immediate and near term payback from an ROI return on investment standpoint for our customers A couple of days before CES officially got under way Daimler Trucks showed off four electric vehicles the company believes are the most likely candidates for successful commercialization a Thomas Built school bus a Freightliner eM2 Class 6 7 chassis a Freightliner eCascadia Class 8 tractor and a Fuso eCanter Class 4 chassis The eCanter is already commercially available but the remaining vehicles are all new and scheduled to be placed in customer hands in the coming months for product validation and for what Daimler calls co creation We dont want to do this the old fashioned way with long design and testing phases we want to get the customer into this early enough so we can all gain knowledge together as we test the trucks explained Andreas Jurtzka e mobility lead for Daimler Trucks North America Thats why we created the Electric Vehicle Council Its made up of 30 customers with strong business cases for electric trucks Everybody is invited to participate and we will share our findings as the tests progress Daimlers Innovation Fleet is made up of 30 trucks split between Penske for P D trials and testing with the eM2 and several eCascadia daycabs going to NFI for evaluation in a drayage operation Range and ROI The truck maker has to know what the customers business is in order to design an appropriate powertrain while considering range and payload For the P D applications with the medium duty trucks Daimler is looking at a range of 230 miles while the specs provided by Peterbilt indicate it is looking at a 100 mile range Consequently the battery capacity on the eM2 is nearly twice that of the 220EV 325 kWh with a peak horsepower of 270 kW for the eM2 compared to 148 kWh and 250kW for the 220EV Having double the battery capacity suggests the eM2 will be considerably heavier than the 220EV but thats neither good nor bad It simply means the two trucks probably have different target applications As Jurtzka put it customers will have to very carefully evaluate their needs because electric isnt like diesel Daimler Peterbilt debut electric trucks at CES We have customers driving around today with 100 gallon fuel tanks but they never use more than 50 gallons he pointed out They never had to worry about range We did a close study and found the average came in less than 150 miles We determined that 230 miles would provide enough energy for the average operation with reserve for accessories like steering braking lighting HVAC etc Having nearly double the battery capacity also means the eM2 will probably cost more That adds to the complexity of determining the return on investment for such equipment While ROI is an important part of the business case for electric trucks the OEM and the customer will have to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges The ROI remains to be seen based on how these trucks perform in their applications said Scott Newhouse Peterbilts chief engineer Part of that is understanding the payback for the customer Looking at it now we believe the pickup and delivery cycle is well suited to the 220EV and converting a refuse truck from diesel to an electric powertrain looks very promising Neither Daimler or Peterbilt came right out and declared the weight of the trucks they had on display Peterbilt did indicate the curb weight of the 220EV is between 10000 and 20000 pounds In Class 6 trim By Jim Park Equipment Editor jpark@ truckinginfo com FUEL SMARTS Fleet testing of new battery electric trucks to get under way this summer A Daimlers e Mobility Fleet includes a Thomas Built school bus an eM2 Class 6 7 chassis an eCascadia Class 8 tractor and a Fuso eCanter Class 4 chassis PHOTOS JIM PARK