Freightliner eM2 and eCascadia Concrete Recycling

Freightliner eM2 and eCascadia

Gr Trucking | Concrete Recycling | Material Trucking | Sacramento

EVs are taking over the car industry and they are projected to fully dominate the market sometime within the next few years. What people are not thinking about as much are all electric semi-trucks. Yes, there is such a thing! In fact, one of the largest freight truck manufacturers, Freightliner, announced earlier this year that its test fleet of electric semi-trucks have already traveled over 700,000 miles. Real trucks hauling real freight in the real world and racking up zero emissions. How has Freightliner done this? With the eM2 box truck and the eCascadia.

Freightliner has two types of all electric semi-trucks in what they call their “customer experience” development fleet. The first is called the eM2 box truck. This box truck is a Class 6/7 truck that is designed to be used for local distribution of things like furniture, food, and other goods. Think of the eM2 as the type commonly seen with a ramp on the back double-parked all over parking lots across the states.

The more impressive eCascadia is a Class 8 tractor that is what you think of when you think “semi”. The 18 wheeler. The long-hauler. The big rig. The eCascadia is designed for local distribution, regional distribution, and drayage – a term for the movement of cargo containers by trucks between different types of shipping, like from sea port to a rail yard, or to a warehouse within a city.

Both of these models have found success in their test runs because they are out doing gasoline-powered competition across many comparison matrices. For example, regular box trucks and local shipping rarely exceed 200 miles in a day trip and the Freightliner electric models have close to a 300-mile range.

What is next? Production of both of these models is expected to begin at the beginning of next year. Daimler has invested over $20 million in the manufacturing facility that will produce the eM2 and eCascadia. So, look out as these are set to take over the semi-truck market before you know it!