Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany is underway and Daimler Truck was there to celebrate with its heavy duty all-electric eActros 600.
The pure battery-electric semi has so far supplied festival goers with 82,000 liters (21,662 gallons) of beer and fresh pretzels. The vehicle was equipped with a 27,500-liter semitrailer tank specifically for this purpose, and the OEM also used this opportunity to demonstrate the vehicle's overall practicality.
Working with Lettl Transportation and the state-owned Hofbrauhaus Brewery Munich, the eActros 600's tank was re-filled for three nights straight as it delivered the beer to the designated barrels at the Hofbrau tent.
As for the pretzels, the eActros 600 delivered fresh, out-of-the oven pretzels from the Hoflinger and Muller bakery to the festival. Those pretzels were produced in two shifts at an extra bakery located at the Olympic terrain close to the Oktoberfest. The bakery, which already has three eActros 600s in its fleet, used the long-distance electrified truck with a refrigerated semitrailer in order to keep things fresh.
Although it doesn't look very different from a typical, diesel-powered semi from the outside, the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 is a state-of-the-art long-distance hauler with a claimed range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) on a single charge. It has a battery capacity of over 600 kilowatt hours and a gross combination mass of 40 tons. The OEM adds that it's capable of covering well over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) per day with intermediate charging. It should be noted this figure does not take into account megawatt charging (MCS), a technology that significantly increases charging time. Mercedes confirms the semi will be able to accommodate MCS at a later date.
[Related: Voltera CEO: 'Megawatt charging can't come soon enough']
Mercedes-Benz will celebrate the start of series production of the eActros 600 at the end of this November this year at its plant in Wörth. The first eActros 600 customer vehicles will be manufactured and registered before the end of this year.
The OEM has confirmed that the eActros 600 will go on sale in the U.S. later this decade.
