Completely or not at all: Nanno Janssen Spedition GmbH from Leer in Lower Saxony is fully committed to electromobility. The controllers there exclude adding further diesel trucks to their fleet. The only restriction is that the enterprise also transports hazardous goods class 1 pyrotechnics, which is largely not permitted with an electric truck so far. 27 of the company’s total of 75 trucks are already on the road with electricity, and the number of electric trucks is expected to increase to 50 by the end of the year. More than half of the fleet would have been converted from diesel to electric drive. In mid-June, the family-owned company took over the first five out of ten Mercedes-Benz eActros 600s ordered at the Wörth am Rhein plant. And so many more will be added soon. Just a few days later, the freight forwarder opened its own charging park with a grid output of four megawatts and a total of 20 charging points.
Nanno Janssen, Executive Assistant, said, “We didn’t do it half-heartedly, we did it right and looked at our entire fleet. My entrance to the enterprise three years ago was the initial ignition to deal intensively with electromobility. Due to the attractive funding opportunities offered by the KsNI program at the time, we decided to apply for 20 electric trucks at once. After that, others were added. It was the right decision to make these investments. This gives us the opportunity to gain experience with electric trucks at an early stage – and with the same usage profiles as diesel trucks in national long-distance haulage. Our drivers, including YouTuber Tobias Wagner, who is known in the industry as an electric trucker, picked up the trucks themselves at the Wörth plant.”
Thomas Schmitt, team leader for e-mobility at Mercedes-Benz Trucks Germany: “It is very impressive how forwarding company Nanno Janssen is leading the way in the drive system revolution and thus acting as a role model for others. At our site in Wörth, we intensively familiarized the enterprise’s drivers with the technology. Especially at the beginning, there are many questions. It is therefore important to teach a lot about the new technology and also about charging. These training courses are very well received and create trust and added value in the driver. Drivers clearly see the added value in the high efficiency of the innovative drive and vehicle concept. While diesel trucks are usually delivered to our dealers, most of the handovers of our electric trucks take place in Wörth, Germany.”
Nanno Janssen: The eActros 600 is the new benchmark in the electric truck sector
The eActros 600 semitrailer tractors are only in operation for a few days at Nanno Janssen haulage company. But Nanno Janssen is already convinced of the vehicles. The 26-year-old represents the fifth generation of the entrepreneurial family. The management is in the hands of his 58-year-old father, who bears the same name. “The vehicle is the new benchmark in the electric truck sector and is also ideally suited to the requirements of long-distance haulage,” reports the junior boss. The eActros 600 has three battery packs, each with 207 kWh [1] .
They offer a total installed capacity of 621 kWh. Freight forwarder Janssen praises the vehicle for its efficiency and economy. He is convinced that the new design of the ProCabin with significantly improved aerodynamics also contributes to this. The drivers made the maiden journey to the company headquarters in Leer without a semitrailer. “We had a consumption of only 60 kWh per 100 kilometers and the display showed 1,000 kilometers of remaining range,” says Janssen. The five-member driver team could have avoided the charging stop at the Seed & Greet charging park at the Hilden motorway intersection in North Rhine-Westphalia. But the meeting was already organized there at the time. Electric trucker Wagner had announced on social networks a stress test of the charging infrastructure there, which the electricity provider Fastned’s facility, which was actually designed for cars, with its 400 kW charging stations, coped with without any problems. Numerous interested parties and viewers awaited the drivers of the red tractor units to talk to them and follow the charging process.
Electric trucks sometimes on the road all week long-distance haulage
In the future, Nanno Janssen’s electric trucks will continue to be powered primarily by public charging stations overlaid with electricity. You are on the road in long-distance haulage throughout Germany. If dispatchers give clear instructions at the loading ramps, this does not apply to charging stations overlaid. Rechargeable batteries cannot be controlled remotely, according to Nanno Janssen. “We give our drivers several apps to search for a charging station overlaying a cheap tariff,” he reports. Ideally, full charging takes place overnight, with intermediate charging during breaks. According to the management, the majority of drivers were very quickly enthusiastic about their electric vehicle. Electric trucker Wagner confirms this: “I enjoy every second in the new truck,” he says to his YouTube community, which now has almost 60,000 subscribers. And even those who have not yet driven an electric truck can literally be electrified. “After two weeks at the latest, nobody wants to go back. Comfort is more pleasant, acceleration is better. Drivers appreciate the peace and quiet in the cab and don’t get their hands dirty when loading – unlike when refueling, where you get oily hands,” reports the logistics professional. It also pays off economically. If the subsidy ceases, the total cost of ownership is similar to diesel. “Although we have significantly higher initial costs, we benefit from lower variable costs,” says entrepreneur Janssen. This results in approximately the same mileage costs over the entire service life.
20 charging points and plenty of power: new empty charging park sets standards
When the vehicles return to the depot from their trips, they naturally “refuel” there right away: since the end of June, a large company-owned charging fleet has been available at the headquarters in Leer. The charging stations have been in operation for several months, but so far in combination with a “light transformer”, which has now been replaced by a powerful 4 MW model. There is also a 1.3 MW battery storage system and an 800 kWp solar system.
The system has ten charging stations overlaid with two 300 kW charging points each. This means that the charging fleet is likely to be sufficiently sized for the future and for other electric trucks. After all, all vehicles will never get their electricity at the same time, but will be on the road most of the time.
[1] The range was determined internally under specific test conditions, after preconditioning with a 4×2 semitrailer tractor with a gross train weight of 40 tons at an outside temperature of 20°C in long-haul operation, and may deviate from the values determined in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/2400.
[2] Rated capacity of a new battery, based on internally defined framework conditions. This may vary depending on the application and environmental conditions.
SOURCE: Daimler Truck
