Green supply chains for Europe: DB Schenker expands its electric fleet with 36 new FUSO eCanter vehicles

International logistics service provider DB Schenker and FUSO, a Daimler Trucks brand, are further expanding their pioneering partnership in the field of e-mobility. In the coming months, DB Schenker will bring a total of 36 additional FUSO eCanter vehicles into operation in eleven European countries. Europe’s leading land transport provider is thus strengthening its sustainability strategy and further expanding the use of electric vehicles in its mixed fleets. DB Schenker has already been using the FUSO eCanter in Berlin since 2018 delivering packaged goods in the city center. Since 2019, the company has added further vehicles in Paris, Frankfurt and the Stuttgart area.

“DB Schenker is a pioneer for innovations in logistics, and now we are becoming the leading provider of green logistics. We focus on sustainability, from the first to the last mile,” says Cyrille Bonjean, Head of Land Transport Europe at DB Schenker. “Emission-free logistics in cities is already possible today, as we are demonstrating throughout Europe together with FUSO and the new eCanter. We are proud that we were able to secure a significant portion of the eCanter production run from this year for us. What that means for our customers: they continue to get the same service but with zero local emissions.”

“We are very happy to take our partnership with DB Schenker to the next level with these 36 locally emission-free FUSO eCanter trucks. Together, we are taking a further step in electrifying urban logistics, contributing to decreased noise and air pollution in major cities across eleven European countries. This announcement represents the biggest eCanter fleet deal to date and I would like to thank DB Schenker for their continued trust in FUSO on our shared mission towards CO2-neutral transportation,” underlines Hartmut Schick, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) and Head of Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA).

Emission and noise-free in 20 European cities

FUSO is currently producing the 36 new vehicles for DB Schenker at its European plant in Tramagal, Portugal. In the next few weeks, they will be equipped with box bodies and tail lifts from various bodybuilders, thus rendering them ideal for delivering packaged goods. For the German market, for example, the bodies are built by Spier in Steinheim who have already a very good collaboration in place with FUSO and the eCanter. The final handovers of the FUSO eCanter vehicles to DB Schenker will start successively before the end of the year at the various locations of the logistics company.

DB Schenker will use the all-electric light-duty trucks with an output of 129 kW and a payload of up to 3.2 tons for urban short-radius distribution in major European cities such as Oslo, Copenhagen, Madrid, Salzburg, Vienna, Hamburg, Rome and Milan. In total, DB Schenker’s electric light-duty trucks deliver almost silently and with zero emissions to customers in inner-city locations in 20 European cities in Germany, Finland, Denmark, UK, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Spain and Italy. This also means, the FUSO eCanter will be making its market entries in Finland, Austria, Spain and Italy. The 7.49-tonne truck vehicles boast a range of at least 100 kilometers and are thus able to cover the requirements of DB Schenker in inner-city short- radius distribution without problem. The vehicles are charged simply overnight either with alternating current or direct current chargers depending on availability. Charging can be reduced to around 90 minutes if a high-speed charger is used.

By intensifying their partnership, DB Schenker will become FUSO’s largest electric fleet customer with a total of 41 eCanter vehicles in daily operations. Experience gained with the FUSO eCanter to date has been consistently positive. Drivers praise the smooth and instant acceleration and agility of the electric drive and the lack of noise or vibration in the cockpit. For DB Schenker, the FUSO eCanter has proven its reliability in real operations over the past two years and offers an ecological mobility solution for its truck fleet as an important component of its sustainability strategy. On the road to CO2-neutral transportation, another truck from the Daimler Truck Portfolio, the Mercedes- Benz eActros, is also in service for DB Schenker in Leipzig as part of the so- called “innovation fleet”.

More than 200 FUSO eCanter vehicles in customer use worldwide

The FUSO eCanter is Daimler Trucks’ first fully-electric light-duty truck in small- series production. FUSO celebrated the market launch of this commercial vehicle for short-radius distribution in 2017. Since then, the FUSO eCanter has been delivered to numerous customers in Europe, Japan and the USA. With completion of the delivery of these 36 additional vehicles to DB Schenker, more than 200 FUSO eCanter vehicles will be in daily customer operation in a total of 14 countries. The global FUSO eCanter fleet has now surpassed more than 2.5 million kilometers driven locally emission-free.

Currently, Daimler engineers are continuously collecting data and feedback based on the daily operation of the vehicle, route profiles and charging characteristics together with customers. This information then flows into the ongoing development of the next generation of the FUSO eCanter. Series production of the next-generation FUSO eCanter with improved range and technology is expected in the first half of this decade. FUSO thereby is an essential part of the sustainability strategy of Daimler Truck AG, which aims to have all new vehicles in the Triad (Europe, North America, and Japan) “tank-to- wheel” CO2-neutral by 2039.