Electric cars are going to be a big part of our future and Daimler for one isn’t going to let Tesla have all the fun. The conglomerate’s Mercedes-Benz today introduced the first fully electric transport truck. in Stuttgart. It’s called the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck and it has a total admissible weight capacity of 29 U.S. tons making it the first clean energy rig of its kind.
The name makes it clear that this rig isn’t for cross-country trips, rather it’s meant to plug the final leg of a big shipping cycle. It can carry a significant amount of load up to 124 miles on a single charge which is why it’s limited to urban environments only.
There will be a time in the future when battery capacity increases to such an extent that rigs of this kind will be able to go cross-country on nothing but electricity but that’s going to take a while. Even though Mercedes-Benz has introduced this truck today it’s going to wait for a “conceivable” launch window after 2020 for mass production and release.
Daimler was able to beat Tesla with this truck. Elon Musk’s recently revealed that this company is working on a Tesla Semi transport truck, it’s planning to introduce it early next year. Now there’s one less vehicle category that Tesla can claim to be the first all-electric manufacturer of.
Filed in . Read more about Electric Cars, Mercedes Benz and Tesla. Source: techcrunch