The last time we talked about Mercedes’ eActros 600 was just after its full launch in Hamburg last autumn, following on from an earlier soft unveiling at IAA Transportation in Hannover the autumn before. One thing that we weren’t able to do at either of those events, however, was actually get behind the wheel, so we were champing at the bit by the time an invite to do just that at Mercedes’ factory in Worth-am-Rhein arrived in our inbox.
For the benefit of those who haven’t been following the development of the ever-expanding stable of electric heavy vehicles from the German OEM, a recap of the technical specs is in order. eActros 600 is so named because it carries three 207kWh battery packs, to a total installed capacity of 621kWh. In practical terms, this gives it reported range of around 500km on a single charge, which Mercedes tell us makes long haul road transport a real possibility. To aid this distance, the vehicle is fitted with the distinctive, aerodynamically efficient ProCabin, also now available on the diesel-fuelled flagship tractor, Actros L.
Chemistry lesson
The batteries themselves are lithium iron phosphate (LFP) based, the first time the German manufacturer has used this chemistry. The lighter eActros 300 and 400, along with most electric cars, use nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), which is more energy dense and therefore lighter than LFP, but is also more thermally sensitive. LFP, meanwhile, is more stable and therefore theoretically safer than NMC, has much better tolerance of lower temperatures and has a much longer lifecycle.
When charging, these batteries can accept up to 400kW under the current CCS protocol, at which rate the vehicle can increase from 20% to 80% charge in one hour. The big enabler for true long distance work, however, will be megawatt charging (MCS), taking that time down to 30 minutes – well within a driver’s statutory driving break. We still don’t have an industry-wide charging standard for MCS, but Mercedes tells us its engineers and researchers have successfully charged eActros 600 at 1000kW in internal testing.
eActros 600 is powered by an 800V eAxle, which carries two electric motors. Each of the motors delivers a continuous output of 400kW, controlled by a four-speed automatic gearbox specifically designed and built for this vehicle. Peak output, at the front end of the curve, is 600kW. As is essentially standard in all BEVs, this vehicle features regenerative braking, converting kinetic energy into electrical energy on overrun. This feature can be manually set by the driver to one of five levels in the same manner as a traditional engine brake, the highest of which enables one-pedal driving.
Driving decisions
eActros offers a choice of three drive modes: Range, which restricts the vehicle to 70% power output and 82kph; Economy, which allows 85% power and 85kph; and Power, for 100% and 90kph. There is also a Boost mode on kickdown, which temporarily overrides the restrictions above, should the driver need an extra push – when overtaking, for example.
For our test drive, Mercedes encouraged us to use the middle of those three modes, Economy, with the regen brake initially set to its second position. While eActros 600 will be starting series production at the end of 2024, you will have noticed that the trucks provided for test driving on this occasion were near-production prototypes. The ability to set various parameters for the Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC) is one of the features highlighted in Mercedes’ marketing material for the model, but the software for the tablet-based MultiMedia Cockpit appeared to be suffering some bugs, so we weren’t able to investigate this ourselves.
In all other aspects, however, our 4x2 tractor was fully functional, pulling a standard European-spec tri-axle curtainsider and fully loaded to 40 tonnes. The test route was 72km, mainly on motorway and highway, but with some smaller roads included as well. Taking around 90 minutes to cover, the actual driving was split between us and another European journalist, giving us roughly 45 minutes each.
On the road
The nature of electric drive, which immediately delivers full torque, can make BEVs jumpy on pull away, but that was not the case this time. This was no doubt partly thanks to weight, but nevertheless impressive – we never felt the need to modify our driving style to account for it, unlike when we drove eActros 400 in the UK. It was also interesting to note that MirrorCam feels completely familiar these days, with no adjustment needed to the lack of physical mirrors.
Having joined the highway we engaged PPC, which has been specifically configured for this particular electric vehicle. In reality, the whole driving experience was so easy and the changes made by the transmission so smooth, it was virtually impossible to detect what it was doing, which was probably precisely the aim. Running along, like most BEVs this one felt curiously flat to drive compared to diesel, not least because there’s no engine noise to let the driver know how hard the powertrain is actually working.
It definitely was working, however, with noticeably less loss of speed on gentle gradients in comparison to other trucks around us – indeed, that was the only real giveaway that we were climbing at all on the less steep highway hills. Coming down again, the vehicle used its regeneration brake to hold our speed, recouping a small amount of power in the process.
What was very noticeable, however, was the updated version of Active Drive Assist, Mercedes’ partially autonomous driving mode. Classed as Level 2 under the SAE classification system, this is now in its third generation and working very well, although engineering constraints mean it’s still not available on UK-spec 6x2 midlift tractors. The steering input on ADA3, however, was noticeably more assertive than the previous generation, and we felt ourselves battling it to keep our preferred line within the lane until our accompanying driver-trainer altered one of the settings. Unfortunately he did that so quickly we’re not sure what he actually did, but it worked.
Brake expectations
Dropping onto the single-carriageway regional section of the route, we took full control of the vehicle ourselves. Setting the regen brake to its highest setting to give us one-pedal driving, we then proceeded through several roundabouts with ease, only using the service brake once when an approaching vehicle forced us to a halt. Use of this mode meant the truck regenerated every time we lifted off the throttle, theoretically making it very range efficient, hence our choice.
Interestingly, our European journalist co-driver disagreed with this choice, immediately engaging the full PPC with ADA3 at our changeover point along this stretch. We questioned his choice, to be told using cruise is more efficient, which in a diesel vehicle is perfectly correct. In the end, our demonstration driver diplomatically agreed with both of us, leaving this one of the many unresolved questions about BEVs of all marques, to be investigated practically at a later point.
Mercedes’ online route analysis tool, eTruckReady, had predicted the use of 15% charge over the full test route at 40 tonnes. In reality we managed 14% between us, despite our colleague conducting a short experiment with Boost mode on the final autobahn section, MultiMedia Cockpit showing us an average overall speed of 60kph across 68km. We can therefore only draw one fair conclusion – the eActros 600 delivered.
