Electric refuse trucks by Daimler roll-out in Denmark
Mercedes-Benz eEconic, the electric truck geared towards municipalities, is finding favour in Denmark. Waste management company Urbaser is deploying the vehicles in Aarhus after successful rollouts across other Danish cities.
It is the third time Urbaser has turned to Mercedes. The company already runs eEonic trucks to collect waste in Copenhagen and Vejle, a town in Jutland. Commenting on the new order of five garbage trucks, Franziska Cusumano, Head of Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks & Custom Tailored Trucks, considers Urbaser “completely satisfied with the battery-electric refuse collection vehicle”. Stefan Olin, CEO at Urbaser A/S, confirmed the sentiment. “Our first experiences with the eEconic have been really good.”
Each eEconic has three battery packs with 112 kWh gross and 97 kWh net, making for 291 kWh in usable capacity. According to Daimler, their trucks can “cover the vast majority of typical Econic refuse collection routes in single-shift operation without intermediate charging.” The stop-and-go of refuse collection also enables further recuperation.
Olin again confirms that the practical range was “more than adequate for long runs of over 100 km, around eight operating hours and the emptying of up to 500 containers”.
In Aarhus, the five eEconic charge overnight at the company’s depot. Urbaser has installed its chargers, which the press photo reveals as Kempower charging stations. The batteries of the eEconic can be recharged as needed with up to 160 kW at 400 amps charging current. Then they need more than an hour to get from 20 to 80 per cent charge. However, lower charging powers can also be used for overnight depot-charging.
The low-floor truck with a permissible gross mass of 27 tons and an e-axle with an integrated drive unit and two electric motors is based on the eActros for heavy-duty distribution haulage. The standard interactive multimedia cockpit provides continuous information about the state of charge, the remaining range and energy consumption in kWh per 100 kilometres, among other things.
Since the eEconic was designed for refuse collection from the get-go, the driver’s cab has been positioned lower than in the long-haul truck, and entry and exit have also been kept lower. There is room for up to four people in the cab.
Mercedes-Benz also lists the low panoramic windscreen of the “DirectVision” cab, with its low seat position, among the features geared toward driver comfort and safety. The windshield is also thermo-controlled.
With today’s order, Urbaser has ordered nearly 50 electric vehicles, which Daimler Truck will hand over successively. According to the manufacturer, the total eEconic intake in Denmark is over 100 units.
Cusumano, again: “Our eEconic for municipal tasks is being used in more and more cities as a locally CO2-neutral alternative in waste disposal.” She added that Urbaser was “a valuable customer in this field of application from the beginning”.
Urbaser A/S has over 40,000 employees and 150 plants in 19 countries and delivers services to more than 70 million people.
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