New Freightliner MT50e offers cheaper battery, slower charging

As different gamers within the electrical business house push for ever-bigger batteries and quicker cost timers, Freightliner goes the opposite means. It’s a daring transfer, and one that might repay.

Freightliner dad or mum firm Daimler says buyer enter and knowledge helped drive improvement of the brand new FCCC MT50e mannequin unveiled at Work Truck Week. That knowledge, mixed with enter from utility corporations and charging producers, led them to take what many may take into account a step backwards. A step in direction of smaller battery packs with shorter vary and the addition of slower, “Stage 2” residence charging.

“They wished to indicate that the L2 charging choices means its simpler to cost these vans at residence,” explained Electrek’s own Jameson Dow, once I requested why Freightliner had despatched me an image of their new field truck blasting right into a suburban residence. “Which is a fairly widespread use case, or so I’ve heard.”

I’ve some Matco and Snap-On reps in my contacts, so I reached out – and at the least one Matco man on the market undoubtedly drives his truck residence each day. In order that half, at the least, checks out.

As for the cheaper battery, that is smart too. The brand new MT50e presents a GVWR of 23,000 lbs., a spread of as much as 180 miles on a single cost (greater than sufficient to cowl my Matco man), and a streamlined, built-in design with no discount in cargo capability in comparison with its diesel counterparts.

And, in fact, it does all that with zero tailpipe emissions.

Able to work

Along with a brand new, “fleet optimized” battery capability, the MT50e sports activities a new electrical export energy system from Odyne that replaces the standard ICE turbines that energy utility our bodies, cell catastrophe reduction “command facilities,” reefer items, and cell medical items.

The MT50e is designed and constructed to the identical physique dimensions as gasoline and diesel MT chassis, which means {that a} fleet’s present our bodies can be utilized on the MT50e with few or no modifications, making it that a lot simpler to combine them into present fleets. New driver security and ease of operation options courtesy of its commonplace OptiView built-in all-digital gauge show, DriveTech driver controls and a full suite of Roadwatch passive and energetic driver security help methods.

Electrek’s Take

Eradicating surface-level carbon emissions from dense human populations is without doubt one of the best methods to cut back the detrimental impacts of inner combustion on public well being. The truth that this new Freightliner does that, and allows its drivers to get their day’s work achieved and cost up with out forcing an additional journey to the depot is big.

My prediction: this one shall be a winner.