DPD Switzerland gets electric truck with 680-kWh battery

From December DPD will be using an electric truck from Designwerk in Switzerland with a range of up to 760 kilometres. The 680 kWh battery on board is allegedly the largest truck battery in Europe and the first in the world to be used commercially in this form.

The Logistics 18E e-truck was built under the Designwerk brand Futuricum. As usual, the Swiss manufacturer used a Volvo truck as the vehicle base. Until now, however, Futuricum has relied on a battery with a storage capacity of 500 kWh for its commercial electric vehicles such as the Collect 26E refuse collection vehicle and the ETM 1005 and 1205 concrete truck mixers designed with Liebherr. The e-truck now configured for DPD has an even larger battery, giving it a range of up to 760 kilometres. “This makes the vehicle very competitive in terms of range, even compared with hydrogen vehicles on longer distances,” says Adrian Melliger, Managing Director of Designwerk.

At DPD, the Logistics 18E will replace a truck with a combustion engine and will operate on all the company’s scheduled routes without intermediate charging. “This makes it DPD’s first e-truck to be used in real-life situations and not on test tracks,” says Tilmann Schultze, CEO of DPD Switzerland. Even if the main focus is on the use of the new technology, “the elimination of diesel costs and the truck’s still valid exemption from the heavy goods vehicle tax is fundamental to implementing this project from an economic perspective as well”, says Schultze.

The Logistics 18E will initially be used on the route between the DPD depot in Möhlin and the distribution centre in Buchs and is expected to cover at least 80,000 kilometres per year. According to forecasts by the supplier, the model will save DPD around 90 kilograms of CO2 per 100 kilometres compared with similar diesel-powered trucks, which would correspond to about 72 tonnes of carbon emissions saved per year.

Source: press release via email in German