Mercedes-Benz Trucks engineers put its battery electric eActros 300 to the test, driving the distribution truck from Stuttgart to the Arctic Circle, covering 3,000 kilometers in the near-series prototype tractor. While not a typical long-haul route, it allowed testing of the vehicle “in real operation for several days at a time under the most varied climatic and topographical conditions is the best opportunity for the developers to derive measures for possible optimization of the functions and systems,” the OEM press release stated. The electric truck, designed for flexible use in heavy-duty distribution haulage, aims to start of production in the autumn of this year.
Before the 3,000-kilometer journey, Mercedes-Benz Trucks engineers had already extensively tested the vehicle in winter conditions as part of the tests in Rovaniemi, Finland. At temperatures of down to -25 degrees, in addition to handling on icy and snowy roads, the focus was particularly on the starting properties and protection of the drive components, software and interfaces from low temperatures. On the return journey, the main objective was to take a closer look at the eActros loaded to 25 tons in real traffic.
Rovaniemi, Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Nyborg, Flensburg, Hamburg, then on the A7 highway down to Würzburg and from there via the A81 highway back to Stuttgart was a marathon for the eActros 300 as a tractor unit, whose three battery packages–each with 112 kWh of installed battery capacity–enable a range of up to 220 kilometers without opportunity charging, according to the OEM. Even at icy temperatures, the cab warmed up relatively quickly. The vehicle was pre-conditioned at a charging station in order to avoid using too much battery energy and thus shorten the range.
“With only minimal temperatures below zero, the loss of range was limited even without pre-conditioning,” aid Marc Schniederjan, team leader at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, responsible for the operation of test vehicles and who coordinated and supervised the return journey.. When driving at a speed of normally 80 km/h, it was also easy to see how the eActros 300 as a tractor unit used its energy by means of recuperation and thus increased the range. On average, the teams took a charging break in the two vehicles three times a day. The charging itself worked without any problems at the available public DC high-power charging stations.
Without restrictions, the eActros 300 as a tractor unit was also able to cope with a wide variety of weather conditions including snow, cold and storms. The installed driver assistance systems proved their worth, as did the second-generation MirrorCam.
