Mercedes Benz Trucks: Große-Vehne Pioneer in the Use of Battery-Electric Trucks
What are the requirements of the drive transition for a large truck fleet operator? What can already be implemented today, and what does it mean when not ten or 100 trucks are on the road, but more than 1,000? Even in the case of a large truck fleet, the transition occurs gradually. This is because even a large fleet operator initially wants to gain some experience before taking the next steps.
The example of Große-Vehne illustrates this. The Europe-wide operating business network GV Trucknet operates around 1,200 of its own trucks, 90 percent of which are of the Mercedes-Benz brand. For the transition to succeed, numerous conditions must be met. In addition to the appropriate range of vehicles, the necessary network capacity and charging infrastructure are needed. And last but not least, the deployment must also be economically viable, meaning there must be cost parity with diesel.
In all these aspects, GV Trucknet works hand in hand with Mercedes-Benz Trucks. Jointly, the first routes for electric trucks were established and more were designed.
Christoph Forcher, eConsultant at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, who is also responsible for Große-Vehne in this role: “The transition to alternative drives, especially for large fleets, is an extremely complex undertaking. We are very pleased that long-standing Mercedes-Benz Trucks customers such as Große-Vehne are interested and open to embracing new technologies. We see our task as accompanying them from the very beginning of this transformation, so that the gradual switch to zero-emission trucks becomes a success story for them.”
René Große-Vehne, Managing Director of GV Management: “As a responsible logistics service provider, we actively face the drive transition and are ready to contribute to climate protection. In my view, it is essential to test multiple alternative technologies – for example, not just battery but also hydrogen drives. The particularity of electromobility is that it is not only about the right vehicle but also about the charging infrastructure and the energy production and storage.”
eActros 300 Lowliner for electric delivery traffic
The planned new round trips will see two eActros 300 in the Lowliner variant used for the first time. The battery-electric Mercedes-Benz semi-trailer tractors can haul mega trailers with three-meter interior heights, which are highly prevalent in automotive logistics. The eActros semi-trailer tractors will operate between the GV Trucknet site in Kornwestheim near Stuttgart and the Mercedes-Benz truck plants in Wörth and Gaggenau. By the end of 2026, Mercedes-Benz Trucks plans to fully electrify delivery traffic to the Wörth plant with its inbound logistics concept. In the next step, the approach will be extended to the other German plants in the Mercedes-Benz Trucks production network: Kassel, Mannheim, and Gaggenau. Logistics partners like GV Trucknet play a central role in this plan.
The deployment offers ideal utilization: On the outbound journey, the trucks transport vehicle parts for production supply, and on the return journey, they carry empty load carriers. The one-way distance is about 100 kilometers. Because the eActros 300 semi-trailer tractor can achieve up to 220 kilometers range on a single battery charge, drivers do not need to recharge en route. They can exclusively use the charging stations of GV Trucknet and Mercedes-Benz Trucks at the departure and destination points. The depot at the GV Trucknet site in Kornwestheim offers a charging station with a capacity of 160 kW, and the world's largest Mercedes-Benz Trucks production plant has a whole charging park with charging stations of different capacities.
eActros 300 semi-trailer tractors in operation for Mercedes-Benz Group AG
For some time now, the Große-Vehne Spedition has been using two regular eActros 300 semi-trailer tractors for the Mercedes-Benz Group AG, also in automotive logistics. The vehicles shuttle in a loop between the engine plant in Bad Cannstatt and the plant in Sindelfingen. Each of the battery-electric Mercedes-Benz E-trucks covers about 180 kilometers daily and are charged at a truck stop until the planned charging infrastructure is built. This electrification at the Mercedes-Benz Group AG was the first consulting project with an industrial company by Daimler Truck consultants.
The four electric trucks at GV Trucknet are not the end of the story. "We will add more electric vehicles to our fleet," announces René Große-Vehne. Currently, they are in talks with other customers about this. "We are very interested in using electric and hydrogen mobility as well as alternative fuels, and gaining experience," he explains. Accordingly, there is also great interest in the eActros 600 for heavy tasks in long-distance transport and the hydrogen-powered GenH2 Truck from Mercedes-Benz, which will soon enter customer testing.
Clients increasingly interested in environmentally friendly offerings
Große-Vehne sees growing interest in environmentally friendly logistics services among its clients. One of the reasons: many shipping companies have set climate and environmental goals for themselves. Many of them are or will become subject to reporting requirements under the new CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) rules and must document the measures they are taking to reduce their CO2 emissions. In this context, logistics is gaining more attention.
The entire leadership team at Große-Vehne supports CO2 neutrality. According to their own statements, GV Trucknet has been completely CO2-neutral since 2018 as one of the first larger logistics service providers. To offset the unavoidable CO2 emissions so far, the company group will have planted one million trees by the end of 2024.
Demands on Politics: Infrastructure Development and Planning Security
Regarding investments, GV Trucknet was able to use subsidies from the federal KsNI funding program for all four electric trucks as well as for the charging infrastructure in Kornwestheim. This also makes the deployment economically more attractive. For current needs, the fast-charging stations with 160 kW are adequately dimensioned. However, the requirements for depot charging infrastructure vary from location to location. Therefore, one approach for freight companies could be to build electric fleets where conditions in terms of space and grid connection are most favorable. Große-Vehne is also open to the idea of using photovoltaic systems on the roof to power the vehicles with self-generated solar power. Different conditions apply to the locations here as well.
Because GV Trucknet is setting a good example, René Große-Vehne has no doubt that CO2 neutrality will also succeed at the federal level. The federal government aims to achieve this goal by 2045.
"Why shouldn't we succeed," says the freight forwarder. "What alternative do we have?"
However, he would like to see a bit more support for the transportation and logistics industry on the way to climate neutrality. One aspect would be the nationwide development of a charging and refueling infrastructure.
"If we demand electric vehicles, an infrastructure must also be built, otherwise it won't work."
After the abrupt end of the KsNI funding program, the industry further needs higher predictability and planning security. Currently, zero-emission trucks are only exempt from the CO2 toll until the end of 2025 – for Große-Vehne, this is too short a period to shoulder the high investments. Lastly, the manager advocates for standards in the propulsion transition.
"We need industry standards that are required and promoted."
Standards have proven their worth – especially in logistics, as demonstrated by the success of containers or pallets.
Translated from German for your convenience automatically with the help of AI. An error-free translation cannot be guaranteed. More international IAA-News here.
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