Karl Benz is often credited with inventing the first true car. In 1885, Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine.
Did he act alone? Of course not. We collaborators know that nobody achieves great feats by themselves. Karl Benz had help. One collaborator was his wife, Bertha, who funded the project and took a later version of the Benz on its first long-distance journey. Benz’s company eventually merged with Daimler Motoren Gesselschaft.
Now the company that invented the automobile is collaborating to reinvent the truck. At the Tokyo Auto Show last Wednesday, Daimler announced a purely electric truck and bus brand called E-FUSO and pledged to electrify all vehicles produced by Daimler’s Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation subsidiary.
Some hours later at the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development Center in Silicon Valley, journalists gathered for a briefing. Before the event, Daimler leaders and I had a far-reaching discussion about how Daimler collaborates internally and with partners and governments. We also discussed how electric trucks and buses will change life particularly for those of us who live in cities.
Daimler’s Fuso is currently selling the eCanter light truck which it assembles in Portugal for the North American market. 7-Eleven in Japan and UPS in Atlanta are using the eCanter which has a range of 60 miles between battery charges. The optimal use of the eCanter is for deliveries within cities.
“We want to make the cities a better place to live. We want the world to change to the next level,” explained an energetic Marc Llistosella, president and CEO of Daimler’s Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation. Marc, who is anything but a staid leader, was animated and clearly comfortable climbing aboard the concept E-Fuso Vision One truck and giving us a live tour via real-time, interactive video. The concept truck, which is several years from production, has a 220-mile range between battery charges and carries a payload of eleven tons. This would enable metro and regional delivery routes.
Benoit Tallec, head of design for Mitsubishi Fuso, noted that a central touch display replaces dials and switches on the Vision One so that the driver focuses on the road. He compared the evolution of Fuso trucks to the evolution of boats from sail to steam power in the early 19th Century. Fuso’s technological advances are “the result of a team effort across three continents,” he said.
After the discussion and presentation, I hopped aboard the eCanter and drove the quietly-purring vehicle by some of Sunnyvale’s
technology company parking lots as some curious engineers took notice.
Daimler’s E-FUSO unit faces two big challenges: infrastructure for charging trucks and increasing battery range. Overcoming these challenges could one day make electric trucks economically viable for longer routes. While consumers may buy electric cars as much for novelty as economics, truck customers demand a business case that proves electric vehicles create value. Making that case through technology advances and cost reduction will require continued collaboration within Daimler, with business partners and with governments.
