Developers from Mercedes-Benz Trucks have charged a prototype of the eActros 600, which was introduced last year, with an output of one megawatt for the first time at a charging station in the company’s own development and test center in Wörth am Rhein.
This first successful charging test of an electric truck with one megawatt of power is an enormous development step, said Peter Ziegler, Head of E-Charging Components at Mercedes-Benz Trucks.
“In the industry, charging power of 700 kilowatts or more is already referred to as MCS charging. However, it is important to us that our customers can charge the eActros 600 with a full 1,000 kilowatts and thus benefit from short charging times with a long range. “We are now working hard to bring the MCS technology in our eActros 600 to series production,” Ziegler continued.
The industry-wide charging standard Megawatt Charging System (MCS) plays a central role, particularly for public charging along main traffic axes. Mercedes-Benz Trucks was also involved in the development of the system. Rainer Müller-Finkeldei, Head of Product Engineering at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, sees the fact that the eActros 600 has now been successfully charged as a success:
“Our developers brought the newly defined MCS standard into the vehicle with full charging power in a very short time – an outstanding engineering achievement. Customers with high demands on range and vehicle availability will particularly benefit from megawatt charging with 1,000 kilowatts in the future.”
Further development of MCS technology for the series
In the further course, the development engineers at Mercedes-Benz Trucks will continue to test the communication interface between the vehicle and the charging station defined as part of the MCS standardization and further develop prototype components towards series production. The start of series production of the eActros 600 is planned for the end of 2024. In addition to CCS charging with up to 400 kW, the eActros 600 will later also enable megawatt charging with a full 1,000 kilowatts as soon as it is available. Customers can order pre-equipment for this. The MCS technology should be retrofittable for these models.
Megawatt charging is particularly interesting for public charging infrastructure
The battery capacity of over 600 kilowatt hours – hence the type designation 600 – as well as a new, particularly efficient electric drive axle developed in-house, enable the eActros 600 to have a range of 500 kilometers without intermediate charging. The electric truck will be able to cover well over 1,000 kilometers a day. Intermittent charging during legally required driver breaks – even without megawatt charging – makes this possible.
Around 60 percent of the long-distance journeys of Mercedes-Benz Trucks customers in Europe are shorter than 500 kilometers, so a charging infrastructure at the depot and at the loading and unloading points is sufficient for these cases. For all other applications, the continuous development of a public charging infrastructure is an essential prerequisite in order to make the electric truck fully usable for pan-European long-distance transport. Megawatt charging has great potential, especially for such demanding applications.
Source: www.transport-online.de