Hermes Germany is stepping up tests of electric vehicles with a one-year trial of the electrified, six-ton truck “Fuso Canter E-CELL” manufactured by Daimler at its depot in Stuttgart.
Apart from the city of Stuttgart, southern Germany, Hermes is the unique user of this new prototype as Daimler’s official testing partner. Thanks to its high capacity, the Fuso Canter E-CELL will be primarily deployed for deliveries between the Hermes depot in Stuttgart and the regional delivery bases.
“The aim of the project is new experience and data for the development of electric mobility, especially in the sector of commercial vehicles,” Hermes explained.
As part of the test run, the five Fuso Canter E-CELL trucks were handed over to the future users – the city of Stuttgart and Hermes Logistics Group Germany, during a press conference this week.
The electric motor with maximum performance of 110 kW / 150 PS accelerates at the same level comparable to that of a passenger car. The top speed is limited to 90 km/h which is typical in this weight class. The process of recuperation has a sustainable effect: If the driver puts his foot down from the gas pedal, the electric motor becomes a generator and feeds the generated braking energy back into the lithium-ion batteries. This way, the Canter E-CELL achieves a competitive range of around 100 km with only one tankful.
"The present technical data show the good progress in testing of electric mobility in far less sophisticated commercial vehicles," Hermes Germany COO Dirk Rahn said during the press conference. "Following the first policy decisions and the pioneering innovation push by Daimler AG, it is natural for us to support such an important development project through our everyday logistics operations. We are thus contributing to transport the rising parcel volumes in e-commerce in a CO2-efficient way in the future as well.”
"The modern internal combustion engine is very efficient, environmentally friendly and above all clean – and there is still no alternative to it in long-distance traffic. It is different in urban traffic. Here, a transition to e-trucks is technically and economically possible in a few years. We are thus making a small but important contribution to urban mobility in Stuttgart. With the city of Stuttgart and Hermes, Daimler Trucks is making a major step forward towards marketability,” declared Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler AG Management Board, responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses.
Rahn added: “We are proud to deploy the new Canter E-CELL in our parcel operations with immediate effect. As an industry pioneer, Hermes was among the first companies to test electric vehicles already more than 20 years ago. Our commitment is part of our climate protection programme Hermes WE DO! via which we want to at least halve the CO2 emissions in our fleet by 2020. We are pleased to have found with Daimler a reliable partner for this project.”
Through diverse measures implemented since 1994, Hermes managed to effectively reduce the CO2 emissions per parcel by 43%. The company has been an important test partner of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz since the 1990s.
