New Technology
AT AN eCANTER ELECTRIC TRUCKS ARE ALMOST HERE AND NOW IN AUSTRALIA. DAIMLER HAS THE FIRST PRODUCTION VERSIONS OF ITS ECANTER LANDED, BUT IT MAY BE A LITTLE WHILE BEFORE COMPANIES WILL BE ABLE TO GET THEM INTO THEIR FLEETS AND OPERATING HERE. WE TOOK A DRIVE IN THE FIRST PROPER ECANTER TO HIT OUR ROADS.
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ven if you want to buy a new electric eCanter, there are two reasons why you won’t be able to. Firstly Daimler Trucks Australia may be actively marketing series production eCanters but they won’t be for sale, they will only be available on an operating lease basis. This means that the eCanter will only be available on a six-year operating lease with a fixed price for the life of the truck with your fleet, and the price will vary depending on the potential workload and other factors. At the end of six years you hand the truck back and, hopefully all things being equal and you have had a happy experience, you lease another one. The notion behind this is that it takes away all of the worries of adopting new technology, if anything goes wrong with the electric truck, it is fixed under the all-encompassing lease. That means that transport operators can accurately pin-point the cost of the truck and maintenance to pitch for contracts with green leaning customers, safe in the knowledge your profits won’t slashed by expensive repairs. The other reason you won’t be able to
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buy one, or for that matter lease it just yet, is because of the fact that Daimler Australia, initially at least, will have a limited access to them, but more about that later. It is clear that creating electric trucks is a complex task, far more difficult and challenging than electric cars. That is clear from the troubles that old mate Elon has been having with the Tesla electric trucks, and why the best and brightest in the Daimler empire are now fully engaged in making the electric driveline work more efficiently and effectively. The challenges are vast, from gaining sufficient range, to the weight of the batteries and the thermal issues that are inherent in having batteries and electric motors. You can pile more batteries in to give more range but it soon becomes selfdefeating, because the more battery weight the more energy you need to move the truck. The more power you feed in the more heat is generated and then there is the issue of ambient temperatures and the effects they have on battery performance. Batteries don’t perform all that well in really cold conditions or in exceptionally hot weather.
