Online retailer Amazon has purchased 202 electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 vehicles from Germany’s Daimler Truck, the automaker said Tuesday, marking both firms’ largest-ever order for battery-powered lorries.
Heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) are responsible for six percent of EU greenhouse gas emissions, according to the European Commission, and account for over a quarter of road transport emissions in the bloc.
EU regulations require truckmakers to collectively reduce the emissions caused by the vehicles they sell by 45 percent by 2030 from 2019 levels. The reductions are set to increase to 65 percent by 2035 and to 90 percent by 2040.
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Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest truck manufacturers by volume, last year delivered 4,035 electric vehicles out of more than 460,000 worldwide.
About 2,000 orders have been taken in total for the eActros 600 since it was unveiled at the end of 2023, a spokesman told AFP.
Former Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum said last year that the eActros was “the future of the company”, adding that he was encouraged by its performance in real-world conditions.
The truck, which Amazon will use in Britain and Germany, can travel about 500 kilometres (310 miles) on a single charge.
The sale price of an eActros 600 is about twice the cost of an equivalent diesel model, the spokesman said.
At competitor Traton, Volkswagen’s truck-making unit, electric vehicle sales fell 18 percent last year, the firm said Tuesday, and account for about 0.5 percent of vehicles sold.
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© Agence France-Presse
