Top three all-electric trucks

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Top three all-electric trucks

Top three all-electric trucks

While record-breaking roadsters may make headlines in electric vehicle (EV) circles, in reality, it's trucks that make the world go round - not to mention hauling the FIA Formula E Championship from city to city. Just think about the last time you ordered a package or went to the supermarket? The chances are it turned up in the back of a truck, van, lorry or - if Elon Musk has anything to do with it - a Semi. Speaking of which, the auto-entrepreneur's big all-electric reveal last week got us thinking - what are the top EV trucks coming to market?

Tesla Semi

When the Tesla Semi almost silently appeared on stage during last week's reveal in Los Angeles, the automotive world got a little excitable. "It'll blow my mind and I think it will blow yours," said Musk confidently. With a 0-100kph (62mph) time of just 5.0-seconds - that's near enough the same as an Audi S5, by the way - the Semi trances other trucks in its class off the line. Then again, not many people buy a truck for its sporting prowess, do they? Nonetheless, the Semi's ability to cover just over 800km at maximum weight, at highway speeds is certainly impressive. Announcing a Megacharger network to fuel his fleet of all-electric juggernauts, Musk claims a Semi can charge up to do 600km in just 30-minutes from one of the new chargers. Reservations for the truck are open now ahead of production starting in 2019.

ARRIVAL T4

Changing the face of urban delivery and mobility is Formula E's very own partner ARRIVAL (formally known as Charge) with the companies T4 four tonne truck. With the development vehicle having made multiple appearances at a number of E-Prix's in the past, ARRIVAL's T4 all-electric truck is based on a modular chassis, which can be scaled up, down or added to, forming different sized vehicles for a variety of jobs. "We saw that the Commercial Vehicle market was a little bit sleepy - there'd been no real change in 30 or 40 years," says Chief Business Development officer Matt Key. "We're bringing beautiful and clean vehicles to market in a completely different way." Through clever positioning of the batteries, the ARRIVAL truck has more relative load space compared to a similar sized combustion engined vehicle. Fully connected and with multiple interactive surfaces in the cabin, the T4 is ready for the age of autonomy, with the companies asterisk logo reflecting this as the first instruction in cloud computing. Already on test with the UK's Royal Mail courier company in London, production of the T4 is set to start in 2018.

Daimler E-FUSO Vision ONE

With Daimler's iconic road car and racing marque Mercedes-Benz preparing to enter into the world of Formula E Season Six, it's no surprise the marque's parent company is going all-electric with its commercial vehicles too. Having revealed its E-FUSO Vision ONE at the Tokyo motor show earlier this year, the truck weighs two tonnes less than its diesel counterpart and has a range of 350km (220miles). “The E-FUSO Vision One represents FUSO’s view on the near future of electric trucks," said Daimler. " “This prototype illustrates the possibilities of extending the current usage of all-electric trucks from the inter-urban centres to highways." Further to its plans for an electric truck, Mercedes parent company also declared yesterday that it will add electric systems to all of its commercial vans over the next few years, starting with the brand new eVito model in 2018.

With the festive season around the corner and more packages than ever making their way around the world, it seems the journey of a parcel may be about to become a whole lot more sustainable.