A truck driver and content creator has set out to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a battery-electric long-haul truck – in this case a Mercedes-Benz eActros 600.
The journey, to be undertaken by Tobias Wagner, known as Elektrotrucker, is due to take about a year and will cover 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America.
Wagner hopes to complete the trip using fewer than 80 charging stops, and after leaving Hanover, the vehicle will travel through the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria before reaching Turkey.
From the middle of October, the journey will continue through Central and East Asia, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China, before heading through south-east Asia to Singapore.
More stages are planned in Australia, the US and Latin America.
Wagner’s vehicle is based on a series-production 4×2 eActros 600 built at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth, converted with single tyres, two spare-wheel carriers, extra lighting and a Bliss Mobil camper body.
It retains the eActros 600’s combined charging system (CCS) capability of up to 400kW, but an Alpitronic DC charger will allow the truck to take power from AC supplies at up to 43kW where conventional charging infrastructure is unavailable.
The eActros 600 has three 207kWh LFP battery packs providing 621kWh of installed capacity and a claimed standard long-haul range of about 311 miles at 40 tonnes GCW.
Wagner said: “I have been driving battery-electric trucks in international long-haul transport for several years and know what is already possible today.
“With this round-the-world tour, I want to find out how far we really are.”
