Enough with the fake news

Too weak, too complicated, too unsafe – commercial electric vehicles continue to come up against a range of reservations and critical voices. In everyday use, however, they have long since convinced those drivers who have already switched to electricity.

Electric trucks and electric vans are no longer a rarity in the logistics sector. Many companies have long since recognised the advantages of electric vehicles and successfully integrated them into their processes. Yet even as popularity grows, many preconceptions about this new technology persist – many of them, as practice shows, unfairly. When users are confronted with the typical reservations about e-mobility, many doubts are quickly dispelled. This is their chance to have their say:

No fun without diesel?

“In my view it’s a great vehicle to drive. I wouldn’t want to give up the e-truck now. When it comes to performance, I’d say you can’t compare the two. The electric truck has the equivalent of 360 hp, whereas its diesel-powered predecessor offered 460 hp. So it might have 100 hp less output, but offers superb acceleration. You can’t really describe what it feels like to drive; you have to experience it for yourself.”

Professional driver, Martin Neumann, has been testing the MAN eTGM for SPAR in the urban area of Graz since October 2018.

“The eTruck is pleasant to drive and has really good acceleration.”

Aleksander Kristof is a driver for the TLC Temmel Logistik GmbH and spends the early shift behind the steering wheel.

“In terms of what it feels like to drive, the vehicle responds immediately to the smallest pedal movements. The first trip in the truck was incredible. I couldn’t stop smiling – and still can’t!”

Istvan Nemeth has been a truck driver for the Rewe Group in Austria for 23 years.

The range is not good enough on an electric truck!

“When I’m on the early shift I deliver to three to four customers, which equates to a total distance of around 70 kilometres. My colleague on the afternoon shift does the same. At the moment, I use no more than around 50 percent of the battery power during my shift. As things stand we could, in fact, cover both shifts without needing to charge the vehicle during the lunch break. However, we carry perishable goods on board and need to deliver the goods to our customers in specific time slots, so we don’t take any chances,” says Martin Neumann.

“Nobody has ever had a problem with the range – in fact it’s quite the contrary. For example, yesterday I had to drive almost 100 kilometres, had to use the lifting platform time and again and used a lot of cooling output, yet there was still a good 40 percent left in the battery,” confirms Istvan Nemeth.

“Delivering to large customers is absolutely no problem. I’ve never come close to running out of charge.”

Professional driver Dominik Lackner, who drives the MAN eTGM on behalf of the Stiegl brewery, is also an advocate of the eTruck’s performance in terms of range.

Charging the vehicle takes too much time!

“The first task in the morning is to check that it’s fully charged. But that’s actually no different to having a diesel-powered truck,” says Martin Neumann, explaining what everyday life is like with the MAN eTGM.

“The MAN eTGM can be fully charged in around 45 minutes at our high-voltage charging station, and thanks to our shift-based operations, not all vehicles would need to be charged at the same time.”

Harald Camondo, Fleet Manager at Rewe.

There are, of course, other reservations about e-mobility that have their basis in fact. For example, it would be true to say that the range of most rechargeable batteries cannot yet compete with the range provided by a full tank of conventional fuel. That is the reason why commercial electric vehicles have been used primarily in urban areas, where their range is more than sufficient. It is important, however, to ensure that clear advancements in technology and the benefits thereof are not disregarded on the basis of unfounded preconceptions. The experiences that these drivers have had send a clear message. This makes it all the more important to keep you drivers up to date on the progress of modern drive technology by means of field reports or by offering you the opportunity to test e-trucks yourselves. Incidentally, a Trucker’s World survey on e-mobility revealed the following: The majority of those surveyed would like to find out more about the drive technology and handling of MAN eTrucks. This is a good first step towards replacing fake news with real news.