After testing with customers, the Freightliner eCascadia electric pickup truck made its production-ready debut for the first time on Monday.
The company said in a press release, production is expected to begin later this year at Freightliner’s Portland, Oregon plant. Freightliner claims to have around 700 orders for the truck.
The production ECascadia will be available with single or parallel electronic shafts. A 291 kWh battery pack will be available with a single drive shaft. The 438 kWh package will be available in single-drive or parallel-drive configurations.
Freightliner eCascadia
Freightliner quotes a maximum range of 230 miles for the single-wheel drive system with the larger battery pack, 155 kilometers for the smaller package and 220 miles for the tandem drivetrain. It’s all a small improvement over the roughly 150-mile range of the pre-production versions that Freightliner has tested with customers over the past few years.
Power output will range from 320 hp and 470 hp, for a maximum gross weight (GCW) of 82,000 pounds, Freightliner said.
Parent company Daimler also plans to offer a so-called “comprehensive ecosystem” service, which includes assisting customers with charging stations and assisting with the installation of solar and energy storage.
Freightliner eCascadia
Freightliner announces its first eCascadia pre-production samples in 2019. Daimler says trucks have accumulated over a million miles in the real world since last year — with lower driver fatigue as an added bonus for reducing emissions.
California is looking to eCascadia for a large portion its test team out of 100 electric trucks. Of that total, 80 will be eCascadias, while the remaining 20 will be Volvo VNR Electric Semis. Absent from this and other electric truck purchases is Tesla, whom Semi has delayed until 2023.
The ECascadia is a Class 8 commercial truck, but Daimler insists it is for short hauls only. An alliance of nations is considering what it will take make all heavy-duty trucks electric in 2050. To start, it will take one whole different kind of truck stop.
