What is the longest distance an EV can travel on a single charge? Well, let's see. The EVs are certainly rolling in. If we talk about trucks, there’s the Ford F-150 Lightning that plans a 230 mile EPA range for Standard range battery, and 300 miles for the Extended range pack. Tesla’s Cybertruck claims 600-plus. These are pickup trucks, of course, and then comes the heavy-duty carrier trucks. How’s the EV scene in commercial vehicles?
For now, less than 1% of the commercial fleet in the US is electric, and the reason is the charging challenge. Before commercial carriers can go EV, there has to be a charging network established on many of the routes to make it a viable proposition.
The industry is certainly expected to grow because when it comes to automobiles, the revolution is electric. EVs reduce the load on the environment because they use clean and green energy, and also have zero emissions. Government incentives are also encouraging people to move to EVs.
So, commercial vehicles are stepping up and going electric. Like one fully electric delivery truck in Germany that has just set the world record for the longest run on a single, full charge. It sort of beats Tesla. Intrigued? So are we, and this is what we know.
A Guinness World Record, No Less
The delivery truck in question belongs to DPD Switzerland, is made by Futuricum, and runs on special Continental tires. It set a Guinness World Record for the longest distance covered by an electric truck without any recharging in between. It managed to do 1,099 kilometers or just a little under 683 miles, in 23 hours.
The battery pack in the truck came from BMW and was 680 kWh-worth of lithium-ion cells, with a usable pack capacity of 578 kWh. And this was not a new truck either, but one that has been in use for the past six months.
Marc Frank, Strategy & Innovation Director at DPD Switzerland stated in the official press release, “We decided to invest in electric mobility at an early stage. The Futuricum truck has been traveling between the depot in Möhlin near Basel to the distribution center in Buchs/Zurich for about six months now. He continues saying, “The e-truck can master roughly 300 kilometers every day without any problems. We are proud that we have now been able to officially document our performance level.”
The Truck Is A Modified EV
The truck in question was a Futuricum Logistics 18E, and the company that made the truck is Futuricum from Switzerland. It basically makes fully electric trucks from Volvo truck chassis, and also makes EV chargers as well as battery packs. Its official longest range estimates on its websites are 472 miles on a single charge so it has exceeded its own estimates as well.
Adrian Melliger, CEO of Designwerk Products AG, the parent company behind the Futuricum explained, “For DPD Switzerland, we have converted a Volvo FH to an electric drive. The 19-ton truck now has over 680hp and, with a capacity of 680 kilowatt-hours, the largest truck battery in Europe on board.
The truck was tested near Hanover on the high-speed oval at the Contidrom, Continental’s in-house test center which is 2.8-kilometer-long. Two drivers completed 392 laps in shifts of 4.5 hours each, driving at a speed of 31 MPH, the kind of everyday speeds delivery trucks are usually at.
It Rode On Special Continental Tires
The truck not only made the record at the Continental track, but it also rode on special Continental EfficientPro tires, designed for particularly low rolling resistance. Hinnerk Kaiser, Head of Product Development Truck Tires EMEA of Continental was quick to add, “The upturn in electric mobility has put an even greater focus on the importance of resistance optimized tires".
That said, the weather conditions were not optimal with 14 degrees (57° F) outside temperature and only around 23 degrees (73° F) ground temperature. There was the wind blowing in at 11 MPH gusts as well but the truck and its EV insides persevered and had set a new and inspiring record for EVs to follow. This is despite the fact that the truck used has been in active service since May 2021 and has already covered 12,000-plus kilometers on Swiss roads.
If a relatively unknown Swiss company can do it, the EV fare in the US needs to buck up. While Tesla is doing great with passenger vehicles, and Ford is adding to the fray, EVs will start to make a difference to the real world only when the commercial vehicles also start going electric in a big way.
Together, Futuricum, Continental, and DPD have managed to take an inspirational step into the future of EVs, and we are sure that plenty of other companies will soon follow suit. Are you all listening?
Sources: GreenBiz, DPDgroup