DHL, DB Schenker, Rhenus and Dachser the first to receive Fuso eCanters in Europe; full electrification of the entire Fuso truck and bus product portfolio planned.
14 Dec 2017 | 20574 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Daimler Trucks is handing over the first units of its all-electric Fuso eCanter to European customers. The globally operating logistics companies DHL, DB Schenker, Rhenus and Dachser will now use the all-electric light-duty truck in series production in their fleet. With Having launched its E-Fuso brand in October this year, ...
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Daimler Trucks is handing over the first units of its all-electric Fuso eCanter to European customers. The globally operating logistics companies DHL, DB Schenker, Rhenus and Dachser will now use the all-electric light-duty truck in series production in their fleet. With Having launched its E-Fuso brand in October this year, Fuso has committed to offering one additional electric variant of all truck and bus models over the next few years.
Marc Llistosella, Head of Daimler Trucks Asia, said, “With the Fuso eCanter we are delivering the first all-electric truck in series production to our customers in Europe today. Over 90,000 kilometres of testing in everyday operating conditions secure that we handover a reliable and economical vehicle to our customers. With the Fuso eCanter, our customers now operate not only quietly and without locally emitted CO2, they also save money on operating costs. This is the future of urban distribution transport.“
According to Daimler, all its logistics business customers, who are putting the vehicles to work that is usually carried out with conventional drivetrains, were influenced by factors such as noise and emission reductions, fleet-sustainability and also by economical reasons. The drivers of the Fuso eCanter will be trained to operate the vehicle. The customers obtain their vehicles via a 24 month long-term rental from CharterWay, Daimler’s own rental and leasing expert in the commercial vehicle business.
Deutsche Post DHL will use its six vehicles in two important business divisions: Two vehicles will perform inner city delivery runs of business and private customers of DHL Freight’s Berlin branch, for heavy individual cargo, such as electrical or large household appliances. DHL Paket will use four vehicles for the delivery of goods to businesses and corporate clients. For this, the electric trucks will be fully integrated in existing business processes and will replace the vehicles with conventional drivetrains which were used so far.
DB Schenker sees it as an opportunity to test a series production electric vehicle for inner city logistics under real-life production conditions. Among other tasks, one of the three trucks will deliver and collect general cargo in the inner city of Berlin.
Rhenus Group, a globally operating provider of logistics, will use the three eCanters within its home delivery unit. From the central warehouse in Hoppegarten, the all-electric trucks will deliver furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and heavy sport equipment to the inner city of Berlin.
Two more eCanters will be driving for the transport company Dachser. Their job will be the general goods transportation core business on the last mile, meaning pallets with industrial goods either at micro-hubs or goods that are delivered directly to the customer, as well as collecting goods and delivering them to the Dachser-branches. At these branches, the eCanters will recharge overnight using a high-voltage loading station.
Production in Portugal
After years of thorough development and testing, the eCanter is now fully integrated in the conventional Fuso Canter’s production line. In July this year, production in Tramagal, Portugal started. All eCanters for the European and the US markets are produced here.
On September 14, 2017 the new eCanter was launched to the global market in New York City. It is the world’s first all-electric light-duty truck from series production. Over the next years, Daimler subsidiary Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) is planning to deliver a total of 500 trucks of this generation to selected customers. The large-scale series production is planned to start in 2019. In the U.S., FUSO eCanter are already committed for delivery for the logistics company UPS and in Japan the convenience-store chain Seven-Eleven and Yamato Transport each will operate 25 eCanters in their fleets.