eActros 600: Mercedes Calculates Crazy Fuel Savings!

To motivate the electric transition of heavy trucks, Mercedes has launched a financial savings simulator compared to diesel.

The fuel consumption of a diesel semi-truck is not familiar to many. How many liters of diesel are needed to haul 40 tons? What is the annual distance traveled by a semi-truck? Etc., etc.

So, to assist us with this educational aspect, Mercedes has launched its online fuel savings simulator. The protocol is simple:

• Annual distance
• Price of diesel per liter excluding taxes
• Electricity price excluding taxes

All this over a period of 5 years and based on a calculation of 26 liters of diesel (at €1.5 excluding taxes/liter) per 100 kilometers. For this, Mercedes compares its eActros 600 electric – its new star – against its Actros 1845 LS diesel. On the electricity consumption side, the starry firm estimates 119 kWh per 100 km (at €0.20 excluding taxes/kWh), a great performance considering the tonnage being towed!

Tens of thousands of euros saved

Before saving, one must spend. The eActros 600 has not yet revealed its price, but Mercedes has admitted that its purchase price is 2.5 times more expensive than its diesel equivalent. From this, one can subtract government and European aids to support the movement.

The simulator does not incorporate the savings related to maintenance, which can be assumed to be lower without fluids or fewer moving parts. Nonetheless, will transport companies be able to achieve the same profitability as with diesel? Not sure.

Thus, it is learned that for an annual distance of 120,000 kilometers, or 600,000 km over 5 years, each electric truck will save €97,022 in fuel costs. This represents only 10,000 kilometers per month, or 333 kilometers per day. This seems highly unlikely. One could increase to 476 km daily based on 21 working days per month per driver. Again, this is quite unrealistic.

The average is rather around 700 kilometers per day on highways, about 900,000 kilometers every 5 years. With this average of 180,000 kilometers annually, then the fuel savings alone rise to approximately €145,500. This brings relevance back. And over an operation of about ten years, electric will certainly be more profitable than diesel.

However, by varying the energy prices, the gaps can shrink dramatically. With a kWh at 30 cents (rapid charging on highways required), the gain over 5 years drops to €36,000!

If at the same time diesel rises to €1.6 excluding taxes, the delta increases to €60,000. And so on.

Last piece of information to note: a semi-trailer consumes about €40 of diesel per 100 kilometers, compared to €23.8 of electricity according to Mercedes. And you, wouldn’t you have thought that an electric truck like the eActros 600 would have been even more economical?

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