Mercedes-Benz Trucks has reached a significant milestone in electric truck charging technology by successfully charging a prototype of the eActros 600 at a one-megawatt charging station at the in-house development and testing center in Wörth am Rhein. The eActros 600 was first presented last year.
The company has been deeply involved in the development of the new industry-wide MCS charging standard, which is particularly crucial for public charging along major transport routes.
Rainer Müller-Finkeldei, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks Product Engineering, commented on the achievement: “Our developers have implemented the newly defined MCS Standard into the e-truck in record time, achieving full charging capacity – an outstanding engineering feat. Customers with high demands on range and vehicle availability will particularly benefit from megawatt charging at 1,000 kilowatts in the future.”
Peter Ziegler, Head of E-Charging Components at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, added, “The successful megawatt charging test with our e-truck is a significant step forward. While the industry already considers a charging capacity of over 700 kilowatts as MCS charging, we understand the importance of our customers being able to charge the eActros 600 at a full 1,000 kilowatts for shorter charging times and longer ranges.”
The next steps for Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ development engineers include further testing of the communications interface between the vehicle and the charging station, as defined by the MCS standardization, and continued development of prototype components towards series maturity. The series production of the eActros 600 is expected to begin at the end of 2024. In addition to CCS charging with up to 400 kW, the eActros 600 will later enable megawatt charging at a full 1,000 kilowatts. Customers can pre-order a pre-installation for this. MCS technology is planned to be retrofitted for these models.
The eActros 600 boasts a high battery capacity of over 600 kilowatt hours, enabling a range of 500 kilometers without intermediate charging. This allows the e-truck to travel significantly more than 1,000 kilometers per day with intermediate charging during legally mandated driver breaks, even without megawatt-charging.
Approximately 60 percent of long-distance journeys of Mercedes-Benz Trucks customers in Europe are shorter than 500 kilometers, making a charging infrastructure at the depot and at the loading and unloading points sufficient in such cases. However, for all other uses, continuous expansion of public charging infrastructure is essential to make electric trucks viable for long-distance haulage across Europe. Megawatt charging has great potential specifically for such demanding application cases.
