Swiss freight company Dreier to procure 50 electric trucks

The Swiss transport and logistics company Dreier AG has signed an acceptance agreement with Daimler Truck and MAN for 25 electric trucks each. The trucks in question are the heavy-duty eActros 600 and MAN eTGX models - the latter has only been available to order since Monday.

25 e-trucks each from MAN and Mercedes-Benz are to start operation for Dreier from 2025. “The electric trucks will go into series production from the end of 2024, so Dreier AG will be one of the first owners of this type of e-truck,” the Swiss company wrote. Agreements have now been concluded with both manufacturers.

The models Dreier intends to procure are not named, but the pictures published with the announcement show the Mercedes eActros 600 in Dreier’s petrol blue and a MAN eTruck. MAN has been accepting orders for the production version, which will be called eTGX or eTGS depending on the cab and purpose, since this Monday.

This means that Dreier will not only use the two electric long-haul trucks of the German manufacturers, but also two different technology paths: As Dreier also reiterates in the announcement, the eActros 600 relies on lithium iron phosphate cell technology, which is expected to last up to ten years of operation or 1.2 million kilometres. MAN, on the other hand, relies on NMC cells for its heavy-duty e-truck, but these have been specially developed for commercial vehicle applications.

Dreier does not provide any information on the exact configuration of the vehicles, such as the battery packs installed, the body and the superstructures. However, as reference is made to the “long-range”, the Swiss company is likely to have opted for the largest battery configuration in both cases.

As early as 2024, 15 electric trucks from Volvo Trucks will be in use. These will be the FH Electric 6×2 with swap body, which is an articulated truck that can also pull a trailer with a second swap body.

In addition, permission was granted for the creation of an “electric park” in Egerkingen, which will be used for charging the electric trucks in the future. Initially, two fast charging points with 360 kW charging power are to be installed there. In the final stage, 23 parking lanes are to be equipped with charging stations at the site, twelve of which will be fast charging points and eleven normal charging points. Whether the “normal charging points” mean AC charging points or DC chargers with lower power is not specified. A second location in Oberentfelden is also to receive charging points. The entire project is being carried out by Dreier AG in cooperation with Siemens.

dreier-transporte.ch (in German)