Amazon orders over 200 Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 trucks

Online retail giant Amazon has placed its largest-ever order of more than 200 battery-electric heavy goods vehicles – and has selected the flagship Mercedes-Benz eActros 600.

This is also the largest order for electric trucks in the history of the truck manufacturer.

The electric trucks will be deployed across high-mileage routes that make up Amazon’s middle-mile network, transporting cargo containers to and from Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sort centres, and delivery stations.

With more than 140 trucks to be deployed in the UK and more than 50 in Germany, the zero emission vehicles are expected to transport more than 350 million packages with zero-exhaust emissions.

The order is preceded by the practical testing of a near-series prototype of the eActros 600 in one of Amazon’s logistics centers in Germany.

Stina Fagerman, head of marketing, sales and services at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, said: “Amazon is an important customer for us on the path towards CO2-neutral transport.

“A near-series prototype of the eActros 600 has already been trialled by Amazon, providing valuable insights before the start of series production. We are therefore very pleased about this major order for the eActros 600.”

As the name suggests, the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 has a high battery capacity of over 600 kilowatt hours, and a new, particularly efficient electric drive axle developed in-house enable the electric truck to achieve a range of 500 kilometres without intermediate charging.

In addition to CCS charging with up to 400 kW, the eActros 600 will later also enable megawatt charging.