The largest commercial electric truck in Germany will be taking its quiet bulk to the road soon. The truck is a 40-ton Type YT202-EV from Terberg, a manufacturer of electric lawn tractors. It will transport materials between the BMW Group Plant in Munich and the Scherm Group, a logistics company about two kilometers away, eight times a day. The route takes it through the city streets of Munich.
The truck generates 11.8 tons less CO2 per year than a diesel equivalent, BMW said in a press release. The electric drive train also means that is quiet, and produces almost no particle pollution.
“Just under two years ago, our BMW i brand put sustainable mobility on the road. This pure electric truck signals that we are constantly working on innovative solutions and tackling logistics challenges,” says Hermann Bohrer, director of BMW Group Plant Munich. “We are therefore delighted with the cooperation with SCHERM.”
The electric truck will be put on the road in mid-2015 and run for one year. If it performs well, BMW said in the press release, both they and SCHERM may invest more in the project. A six-figure amount has already been put into the year-long pilot project. The truck has been licensed for use on public roads, so the first year’s trial will display how well it performs in everyday conditions compared to the diesel trucks which would typically run the same kind of route.
“After a long search, we have found an electro-mobility solution for the transport sector,” said Rainer Zoellner, ‘e-truck’ project manager at SCHERM Group. “We are certain to gain valuable experience with the BMW Group from this pilot project.”
BMW also makes its own electric cars, the BMW i3 and i8, and hybrid plug-in models like the BMW ActiveHybrid series.
