Mercedes-Benz Shows Off An All-Electric Semi

The Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck prototype is a fully electric, three-axle heavy truck that is built for various tasks around a city such as deliveries.

Taking a standard three-axle heavy truck, Mercedes' engineers ripped out the diesel powerplant. In its place is an electric on the hub of each rear axle. Power figures stand at 167 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque. A massive 212 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack runs down the middle of the truck and provides a total range of 124 miles. The automaker says this should cover a day's worth of deliveries.

"With the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are underlining our intention to systematically developing the electric drive in trucks to series production maturity. This means that we will begin to integrate customers, so as to gain valuable joint experience with respect to the operating ranges and the charging infrastructure in daily transport operations. Because we think the entry of this technology into the series production is already conceivable at the beginning of the next decade," said Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks in a statement.

Why would this make Elon Musk slightly mad?

Last week, Musk unveiled Tesla's second master plan outlining what the future holds for the company. In there, Musk said that early development work has begun on a 'Telsa-semi' (his words, not ours). With Mercedes unveiling a semi-truck EV for the city, it might make Tesla work a bit harder and faster on their semi.

Pic Credit: Mercedes-Benz