Daimler unveils plans to manufacture first heavy-duty electric truck from November

Daimler Truck announced that it would start producing its first fully-electric heavy truck -- the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 -- from November, having received more than 2,000 orders for the vehicles after bookings opened last year.

The truck will be produced at an existing assembly line in Woerth am Rhein, Germany, the company said.

The eActros 600 is capable of driving 500 km on one battery charge and carrying 22 tonnes of cargo. Daimler says that's sufficient for most European haulage. "Around 60 percent of long-distance journeys of Mercedes-Benz Trucks customers in Europe are shorter than 500 km, which means charging infrastructure at the depot and at the loading and unloading points is sufficient in such cases," the company said in a previously-issued press release.

The eActros 600 has three battery packs, each with 207 KWh, giving the truck an installed total capacity of 621 KWh. Karin Radstrom, head of the Mercedes-Benz Truck Unit and incoming CEO of Daimler Truck, said the vehicle's high energy efficiency would make it a profitable purchase for fleet operators.

Analysts, however, are focused on price. Consulting company McKinsey estimates prices of so-called "clean trucks" need to halve for the vehicles to compete against diesel models. Compared to the eActros 600's 500 km with 22 tonnes of cargo, Daimler's diesel trucks have an average range of 1,600 km a day with 25 tonnes of cargo.