Fuso eCanter electric light-duty truck arrives in Australia
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) announced the eCanter launching in Australia. With the Australian rollout, the all-electric light-duty truck will now be running in a fourth major region, following Japan, Europe, and the US.
The Mitsubishi subsidiary, which belongs to Daimler, expects the first batch of deliveries to Australian customers to take place within the next several months. According to the company, the Fuso eCanter for Australia is shipped from Tramagal in Portugal and comes with the same standard specifications as the models currently available in Japan and Europe.
MFTBC points to Fuso dealers in Australia for clients to receive their trucks and advice on charging infrastructure options. The company also hopes for “improved availability of quick-charging facilities, which will further aid the take-up of battery-electric commercial vehicles”. It points to the government budgeting 16.5 million AUD to support BEV fast-charging infrastructure projects this February in its Future Fuels Strategy. Some activists deem it a “nothing paper”, though.
Going back to the other side of the world, the light electric truck also made its entry into two additional European markets. In March 2021, Aquaservice, a distributor of natural mineral water and dispensers, became the first company in Spain to incorporate the electric truck into its fleet, Fuso reports. The eCanter is now running in Valencia on customer delivery routes. In February 2021, Fuso handed over three eCanter trucks to Camion Transport, one of Switzerland’s leading transport companies. The vehicles are currently operating in Basel, Lucerne, and Geneva.
Since its world premiere in 2017, over 200 units of the eCanter have been delivered to select customers such as UPS, Yamato, 7-Eleven, DPD, Wincanton and Hovis, as well as DHL, DB Schenker, Rhenus, Dachser and P&H Logistik. It is also being tested by PostNL, Albert Heijn, the Cornelissen Groep, Technische Unie and Bidfood, and by the city administration of the Portuguese capital Lisbon.
The light truck has a range of around 100 kilometres. Its electric drive train is supplied with energy from six lithium-ion battery modules, each with 13.8 kWh (total: 82.8 kWh). The payload is up to 4.5 tons. Daimler states the total weight at 7.49 tons. A 129 kW electric motor powers the Fuso eCanter. As with all vehicles in this weight class, the maximum speed is limited to 80 km/h.
The Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation (MFTBC) also recently announced plans to start series production of fuel cell trucks “by the end of the 2020s” and showed a concept of the eCanter F-CELL. Daimler also founded an internal research and development organisation called the Electric Mobility Group in 2018. MFTBC is working under the umbrella of this group, among other things, on the next generation of the Fuso eCanter.
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