Fuso first to showcase heavy-duty, electric on-highway truck

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Updated Oct 26, 2017
The E-FUSO lineup at Tokyo Motor Show.The E-FUSO lineup at Tokyo Motor Show.

While parts of the trucking world wait for the twice-delayed debut of Tesla’s electric truck, Fuso on Wednesday beat them to the punch.

A division of Daimler Trucks, Fuso unveiled its Vision ONE Class 8 concept truck at the Tokyo Motor Show, featuring a Gross Vehicle Weight of 51,150 pounds and a range of up to 220 miles on a single charge when fitted with 300 kilowatt hour batteries. Vision ONE’s 11 ton payload is just two tons fewer than its diesel counterpart.

While the electrification of long-haul trucks still needs time, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation President and CEO Marc Llistosella says a potential application for the Vision One heavy-duty truck is regional intra-city distribution.

Llistosella says about 60 percent of the world’s population will live in metropolitan areas in the years ahead, posing problems with congestion, noise and pollution.

“For the transportation of our goods, trucks can not be substituted,” he says, “but we can change the way how these trucks are powered. The replacing of combustion engine trucks for city delivery with electric powertrains would have a substantial effect [on] air quality, and not to forget, we are surrounded by noise,”

A possible market entry for the series version of the E-FUSO Vision One, Fuso says, could be feasible within four years in markets like the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Llistosella called the Vision One tractor “an outlook on a feasible all-electric heavy-duty truck,” and announced Fuso announced it will electrify its complete range of trucks and buses in upcoming years under the e-Fuso banner, “a new product brand dedicated exclusively to electric trucks and buses,” he adds.

“With the eCanter, we have proven electric trucks are feasible for commercialization. Today, our eCanter saves up to [more than $1,100] in running costs per 10.000 km. And with the rapidly evolving battery technology, we will continue to develop electric trucks and buses that will have a positive environmental and economic impact on society.”

Fuso, with its eCanter truck, was the first OEM to have a production-model medium-duty all-electric truck available for purchase and is also the first with a prototype for a heavy-duty all-electric truck. In August, Cummins unveiled its Class 7 electric truck, Aeos.