A real world one year trial of electric trucks has taken place in Portugal, with initial results suggesting substantial savings in running costs. First findings from the trials with eight Fuso Canter E-Cell trucks in Portugal indicate the trucks proved adequate for everyday use in short range delivery and inner city transportation.
The E-Cell has a range of over 100 km, further than many short-radius distribution trucks usually travel per day. The Fuso carried payloads up to two tonnes. At the same time, preliminary analysis points to cost savings of about $1750 per 10,000 km compared to conventional diesel trucks.
In the trial, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, used the Canter E-Cell for horticultural and waste disposal purposes, the Northern Portuguese City of Porto as a means of collecting recyclable waste, and other, smaller, cities around the country used the electric trucks for forest maintenance.
Distribution company Transporta used the trucks for house-to-house deliveries as part of its short-radius distribution service and energy supplier, REN, fused them within industrial gas storage facilities located in the cities of Sines and Pombal. Plus, the Canter E-Cell helped the Portuguese national postal service CTT with transport runs between its distribution centres in the cities of Lisbon and Coimbra.
“The Mitsubishi Fuso Canter E-Cell project is a great example of innovation and collaboration between the Portuguese government, its agencies, Mitsubishi Fuso and Daimler Trucks”, said Marc Llistosella, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus and Head of Daimler Trucks Asia.
“The vehicle underlines our commitment to thinking ahead and developing sustainable and reliable transportation solutions to the benefit of our customers and society as a whole. The results of the trials prove that we are on the right track. The customers in the test trial experienced the Canter E-Cell as an efficient and reliable concept fully meeting the demands of urban delivery transport.”
The Fuso Canter E-Cell vehicles sold in Europe are produced at the Tramagal plant, 150 km northeast of Lisbon. It produces Fuso Canter for around 30 European countries, Israel, Morocco and Turkey. The main production plant at Kawasaki in Japan supplies the body panels, axle parts, steering system, the heating and climate-control systems, and the DUONIC dual-clutch transmission, as well as the electric drive components of the Fuso Canter Eco Hybrid.