THE FUTURE TODAY. FIRST FULLY ELECTRIC eCANTERS FOR LOGISTICS DHL, DB SCHENKER, RHENUS AND DACHSER.

Locally emission-free and virtually noiseless, that’s what it looks like, the future of European city logistics – and it’s starting now! At least according to the 14 fully electric FUSO eCanters that were handed over today in Berlin to the four major international logistics companies Deutsche Post DHL, DB Schenker, the Rhenus Group and Dachser. This makes the eCanters, with a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 7.49 tonnes, quite officially the first series-produced, purely electrically powered trucks for the European market.

With their eCanterns, customers receive a completely practical and mature vehicle that has already clocked up more than 90,000 test kilometres. For this purpose, extensive customer trials were carried out with pre-series models in Portugal and Germany between 2014 and 2017. The data, experience and findings gathered in normal everyday logistics operations were incorporated into the development of the current small-series version of the FUSO eCanter. Since July this year, the electric-drive version has been fully integrated into the production line of the conventional Canter at the plant in Tramagal, Portugal. Thus, all Canter and eCanter for the European market are “Made in Europe”.

Uwe Brinks, CEO DHL Freight, sees the six eCanters for his group as a decisive building block: „The use of alternative drives, such as in the all-electric FUSO eCanter, plays an important role in achieving our group-wide goal of reducing all logistics-related emissions to zero by 2050. DHL Freight is determined to make its contribution to this.“

Two of the vehicles will therefore go to DHL Freight and will in future deliver heavy general cargo shipments, such as electrical or large household appliances, to business and private customers on inner-city routes for the Berlin branch.

„With the help of the eCanter, we want to reduce emissions and local air pollutants in our forwarding traffic and thus limit both our own CO2 footprint and that of our customers“, explains Uwe Brinks. The four other eCanters are also used in Berlin’s city centre. In the DHL Parcel Division, they ensure deliveries to companies and major customers. There is no special treatment for the new electric trucks, rather DHL plans to fully integrate them into the operational process and replaces the conventionally powered vehicles with them on the respective tour.

Its status as a mature series-production vehicle made the decision in favour of the FUSO eCanter easy for DB Schenker, as Ewald Kaiser, COO DB Schenker AG, describes: „At DB Schenker, we have been working continuously for years towards also becoming the world’s leading provider of green logistics for our customers. The use of the new eCanter is therefore the logical next step for us to further expand our existing environmentally friendly solutions in land transport so that we can achieve our goal of reducing the carbon footprint of our entire logistics chain by 30 per cent.“ DB Schenker is therefore testing its three eCanters in detail over the next two years in city logistics, including in Berlin, for fleet suitability.

The s Group is also planning to use its three FUSO eCanters in Berlin. Nicolas Rottmann, Managing Director of Rhenus Home Delivery, is already eager to see how the e-trucks do: „Within Rhenus Home Delivery, we pursue a sustainable corporate philosophy. In addition to the introduction of paperless delivery, we have been looking at environmentally friendly, alternative drive options for a long time. The eCanter now offers us the opportunity to test the use of battery electric vehicles in our fleet.“

In the Home Delivery unit, the all-electric trucks will deliver furniture, brown and white goods and large sports equipment in Berlin’s city centre in the future. Nicolas Rottmann sees ideal conditions for the eCanter here: „Due to the short distance from the central warehouse in Hoppegarten to our end customers, the use of a sustainable, fully electric vehicle in Berlin’s urban area is an excellent option.“

Two more FUSO eCanters will be delivered to transport companies working for the logistics provider. „The vehicles are building blocks of our ‘City Distribution’ project and complement our innovative and sustainable concept for delivering to inner cities“, explains Stefan Hohm, Corporate Director, Corporate Solutions, Research & Development Dachser SE. „We are concerned with putting together the optimal vehicle mix for each city and combining the fleet with micro-hubs in city centre locations.“

For this reason, the future task of the eCanters is the general cargo core business on the last mile. For example, they deliver pallets of industrial goods either to small centrally located storage points or directly to the customer. On the way back, they pick up goods and bring them back to the Dachser branches.

Stefan Hohm also sees the eCanter as the right combination of innovation and proven services: „We chose the FUSO eCanter because the vehicle is the first electric truck to be produced in series and will thus give this entire commercial vehicle class a boost. In addition, Daimler CharterWay is a long-standing fleet partner for us, on whom we can also rely with regard to the city logistics of the future.“

As with their other Mercedes-Benz trucks, the four logistics companies can also rely on the usual services and support for their new FUSO eCanter. For example, the deployment of the eCanter is on a 24-month long-term lease through Mercedes-Benz CharterWay, the experts for the commercial vehicle rental business within Daimler AG.

In the coming months, more than 150 additional FUSO eCanter with different body variants for various purposes will be handed over to customers throughout Europe.