Holcim places massive 1,000 unit order for Mercedes electric semi trucks

Swiss building materials and solutions provider Holcim took a significant step towards meeting its stated sustainability goals by placing an absolutely MASSIVE order for 1,000 Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 electric semi trucks. (!)

Mercedes-Benz just launched its new battery-electric semi in October of last year, and the order from Holcim is by far their largest, yet — but it’s not a move that’s completely surprising, given the long history of partnership between the two brands in Europe.

“Holcim is advancing the transition to more sustainable and efficient transportation by decarbonizing our operations’ logistics,” says Miljan Gutovic, Region Head Europe, Holcim. “We are excited to be partnering with Mercedes-Benz Trucks to electrify our fleet, accelerating our goal for 30% of our heavy-duty truck purchases or contracts to be zero-emission by 2030.”

Holcim says the majority of its Mercedes electric trucks will be used with silo trailers, and spend their days hauling dense building materials like concrete and steel — which sounds a bit more impressive than potato chips and soda, but nobody asked me.

Helping move all that mass around is a high capacity, 600+ kWh battery (hence, eActros 600), which will send power to a new, highly efficient electric drive axle developed in-house by Mercedes-Benz that should give electric semi 500 km operating range “without intermediate charging.” Enough range, in other words, for Mercedes to confidently claim that the eActros 600 will, “be able to travel significantly more than 1,000 kilometers per day. This is made possible by intermediate charging during the legally prescribed driver breaks – even without megawatt-charging.”

The company claims the massive, 600 kWh battery in the eActros can be charged from 20 to 80 percent in about 30 minutes at a megawatt charging station, which will soon (?) be available across Europe.

Electrek’s Take

Moving snacks and groceries around under electric power is great, but if we’re going to convince the diesel faithful to give EVs a try, they’re going to have to be seen pulling some major loads — and Holcim? They’re pulling major loads … and they’ll soon be doing that 1,000 EVs at a time.