The light-duty electric truck eCanter was introduced by Mitsubishi and Daimler this past week. This comes amid a twitterstorm between Daimler and Tesla's Elon Musk, which will soon offer an electric truck product, or at least prototype.
Skip the corny intro and start the following eCanter eElectric etruck evideo (the "e" prefix getting stale? nah!) around 0'30".
(Mitsubishi Daimler eCanter electric truck video>)
The E-Fuso underlines the brand’s position as “the frontrunner in electric trucking,” Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler said in the statement during the Tokyo Motor Show. Fuso last month presented the eCanter, a short-range light-duty hauler for urban deliveries.
Tesla’s Model S has been taking market share from Mercedes’s flagship S-Class sedan, and plans by the California upstart to broaden its lineup steps up competition between the former partners. Tesla, which has delayed its truck’s unveiling to November from September while it works through Model 3 production bottlenecks, has said its hauler will drive as far as 300 miles on a single charge. The company plans to add a pickup as well.
The E-Fuso’s load capacity will be 2 tons less than a comparable diesel model to accommodate the weight of the 300-kilowatt battery packs, the company said. The model “underlines our commitment to electrify our entire product range,” Marc Llistosella, who heads Daimler’s Asia truck unit, said in the statement.
In his 1956 story The Corkscrew of Space, sf legend Poul Anderson described self-driving trucks called electrotrucks:
As he watched, [the spacecraft] entered its cradle and was wheeled off toward the waiting electrotrucks. Unloading began immediately; the trucks gulped packages and scurried like beetles toward the warehouses.
Older science fiction fans relish the "electro" prefix as opposed to the "e" prefix because of its funky retro appeal.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'