Daimler Trucks

Daimler launches electric Class 8

TOKYO, JAPAN - Daimler Trucks has a new product that's all charged up and ready to hit the road. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), the majority of which is owned by Daimler AG, announced the first fully electric Class 8 truck at the Tokyo Auto Show Wednesday. The truck was revealed as part of the E-Fuso line-up, the first product brand launched by an OEM exclusively dedicated to the electric mobility of trucks and buses. The Fuso launch comes on the heels of the launch of the Fuso eCanter, a Class 4 truck that will deliver later this year. It also comes ahead of a reported launch of an electrified Class 8 from Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk. The date for that launch was rumored to be this month, after it was pushed back several times. E-Fuso's electric heavy-duty concept truck - named E-FUSO Vision One - has a 300 kiloWatt hour battery with a range of up to 350 kilometers, and a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) of about 23 tons. The company says it can carry a payload of about 11 tons, only two tons less than its diesel counterpart.

Daimler Trucks’ Inspiration

LAS VEGAS -- What happens in Las Vegas is supposed to stay in Las Vegas, but that certainly not the case with Daimler Trucks' recently introduced Inspiration Truck. It's the autonomous commercial vehicle that has taken the world by storm. Literally. Daimler Trucks invited more than 200 journalists from four continents to cover the event, and stories have appeared in over 500 newspapers and on TV news shows all over the globe. Today's Trucking was there too, of course. And we had our chance to ride in the truck. We were not allowed to drive it at this event because it requires some driver certification, which there wasn't time to procure. We did come back from the launch event with this video of our test drive, with Equipment Editor Jim Park in the right-hand seat.