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A Volvo FH Electric semi just made a 3,000 km trip across Europe

A Volvo FH Electric 40-ton semi-trailer truck made a 3,000 km (1,864-mile) trip between Zurich, Switzerland, and Valencia, Spain – the longest distance traveled by a commercial electric truck so far.

Swiss logistics company Krummen Kerzers made the round-trip run. The driver, Balint Schnell, picked up 20 tons of oranges for grocery store Casa del Mas in Küsnacht, on Lake Zurich, from the store’s own citrus orchard in Canals, near Valencia. It was Schnell’s first time driving an electric semi, so he had to familiarize himself with the e-truck, study the route in detail, and plan ahead.

The trip took a week, whereas it would have taken four days in a diesel semi. Schnell had to adhere to required EU driving and rest times, so he stopped around 20 times, and he had to plan carefully so that charging time coincided with breaks.

Volvo’s website says that its FH Electric 4×2 semi tractor trailer has a range of up to 300 km (186 miles).

Volvo Switzerland posted this photo of Schnell on its Facebook page:

Photo: Volvo Trucks Schweiz/Facebook

The route isn’t yet designed for charging electric semis, so Schnell had to charge at regular EV stations. “As soon as a station was used by other vehicles, the loading speed decreased enormously,” Schnell said.

Peter Krummen, co-managing director of Krummen Kerzers, said [translation]:

Record or not, the decisive factor for us is the fact that important knowledge about the use of e-trucks in long-distance traffic was gained with this trip and almost 3 tons of CO2 were saved.

Top comment by Brett Chandler

Liked by 3 people

In one sense, this is a PR stunt but it sounds like they tried to make the conditions as realistic as they could. I get that this looks like a fail when a typical 4-day drive is extended out to 7, but there are mitigations. For instance, they could go "pin-to-pin" and hand off to other trucks to expedite the load, but in any event it's cool that they were able to do this at all at this point.

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Krummen Kerzers plans on investing in electric truck charging infrastructure at its office in Kerzers, Switzerland, as well as at three other locations in the country. The company also wants to increase its fleet of electric trucks to 18 units by the end of 2023.

Read more: Tesla Semi completes first 500-mile trip with a full load

Photo: Krummen Kerzers


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Avatar for Michelle Lewis Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis is a writer and editor on Electrek and an editor on DroneDJ, 9to5Mac, and 9to5Google. She lives in White River Junction, Vermont. She has previously worked for Fast Company, the Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. Message Michelle on Twitter or at michelle@9to5mac.com. Check out her personal blog.