Freightliner Trucks debuted two fully electric commercial trucks during the Daimler Trucks Capital Market and Technology Day in Portland, Oregon earlier this month.

Daimler Trucks North America president and CEO Roger Nielsen said the company had a responsibility to its customers, shareholders, and the environment, to develop commercial electric vehicles that eliminate emissions and enhance customers‘ bottom lines through improved uptime and lower operating costs.

“We now bring our unmatched experience and expertise to the electric truck segment. It is our target at Daimler, to have the broadest e-truck fleet in North America, by 2021. At Daimler we like a good challenge, but we always like to solve the hardest challenge first, so we decided to focus on the biggest learning opportunity for us, the heavy-duty class 8 truck sector.”

Nielsen said heavy-duty electric vehicles presented the greatest engineering challenges but also the best learning opportunities.

“The Cascadia represents the biggest market sector in North America, in class 8 trucks. It is our flagship product. So we wanted to challenge ourselves to create the e-sibling to the most popular product in our portfolio.”

The two trucks unveiled were the fully electric versions of two of the company‘s most popular vehicles – the all-new Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 106 – both designed for specific applications and resulting from direct customer input.

The Freightliner eCascadia features up to 730 peak horsepower. Its batteries provide 550 kilowatt hours (kWh) of usable capacity, which translates to a range of up to 250 miles with the ability to charge up to 80 percent – providing a range of 200 miles – in about 90 minutes. The Class 8 tractor is designed for local and regional distribution and drayage.

The smaller eM2 features up to 480 peak horsepower. The batteries provide 325 kWh of usable capacity, giving it a range of up to 230 miles. A 60-minute charge will get the batteries up to about an 80 percent charge and deliver a range of 184 miles. The eM2 targets local distribution, pickup and delivery, food and beverage delivery and final-mile logistics applications.

Nielsen said innovation must be customer-centric, and that everything they do hinged on the needs of the people who rely on their trucks daily.

“We embrace co-creation. We rely heavily on customer input as we brainstorm new products. Actively listening to the concerns of the people who use our vehicles is deeply ingrained in our culture. We build their commercial vehicles that fulfil our customers‘ needs while reducing emissions, enhancing their profit margins, improving uptime, and lowering operating costs. We know we‘re on the right track, and our EV initiatives are no exception to this strategy.  Later this year, we plan to deliver an Electric Innovation Fleet of 30 vehicles to customers for further testing under real-world operating conditions.”

Nielsen said the time to focus on electric vehicles was now, as battery technology matured and a commercial charging infrastructure was being established.

“For us, this work goes beyond manufacturing and selling e-trucks. Our approach is more holistic. We are focused on providing customers with complete consulting services for their charging needs and heading a CharIN taskforce to develop a standard charging system for battery-powered vehicles in partnership with our parent company, Daimler AG, a founding member of the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN).”

The eCascadia and eM2 are both slated for production in 2021.