“Make sure to release the brakes but you need to push this first,” said the rep sitting shotgun, pointing to an enormous red switch. “And you’ll need to slam the door; that’s a Freightliner thing.”
It was clear this would not be a standard road test.
We’re at the wheel of a new Freightliner eCascadia, a next-gen electric semi truck with the ability to travel about 370 kilometres on a single charge whilst packing the chops to bear a gross combined weight of 82,000 pounds. Think about that number the next time some DudeBro in a backwards Under Armour cap tries to brag about the prowess of his last-gen Ram 2500 (on which he’s still making payments at 14.99% APR, of course). And before anyone starts writing letters, this author does understand that a machine like the eCascadia is technically a tractor even though everyone calls it a truck. For brevity, we’re using the latter.
Freightliner asserts it has piled on over a million miles (1.6 million kilometres) of development duty on prototypes before launching this truck for sale, a number which is eminently believable in the grand scheme of product planning. The eCascadia is driven by a so-called eAxle, built by the ePowertrain division of a company simply called Detroit. You may know it as Detroit Diesel, a powerhouse in an industry relying on huge amounts of grunt to get the job done. The eAxle is integrated with an electric motor, transmission, and specialized electronics to form a compact unit which hangs out on the drive axle. Dual motor variants are good for about 395 horsepower over 2,000 lb-ft of torque.
If you’re wondering how that stacks in comparison to traditional powertrains offered in a diesel Cascadia, Detroit makes a 15.6L inline-six engine called the DD16 which produces about the same torque but roughly 600 horsepower. That amount of displacement from six cylinders must mean the thing has pistons the size of paint cans. Other mills, like the Cummins X12, are good for up to 500 hp and 1,700 lb-ft of twist. Since the eCascadia is promoted as ideally suited for short haul routes, it is fair to say it is more powerful than comparable trucks.
Customers can choose between three battery options starting with 194 kWh, 291 kWh, or the most-likely-to-be-chosen 438 kWh unit. From dead flat to fully charged, the big one can apparently juice itself in between two and six hours depending on the strength of charger to which it is connected. Far more likely is the 10 to 80% charging cycle which can take about 90 minutes with a sufficiently stout DC fast charger. Range is said to be about 350 kilometres in a common axle configuration. Freightliner arrives at this number assuming a gradually diminishing load, consistent usage of regenerative braking, and starting routes on a full charge. Fair enough.
All it takes is a flex of the big toe on my right foot to set the eCascadia in action – but absent any roaring exhaust stacks or furious flipping of a gazillion gear ratios, take-off is benign as setting out for bingo in nan’s Kia. The tiller is the size of a dinner platter and offers precisely zero feedback as to what the eCascadia is pressing into the earth, angled at a jaunty bus-like rake to assure a driving position familiar to Ralph Kramden.
With the ability to twist about 350 kilometres out of its 438-kWh battery, it would take at least one recharging session to complete the average commercial driver’s daily route of between 600 and 900 clicks, though we acknowledge the eCascadia is a so-called ‘day cab’ model. Depending on the strength of a charging station, that session could take as little as ninety minutes or several hours. A diesel Cascadia wouldn’t need to stop for a couple of days on a full tank of diesel and, when it did, less than a third of the time would be needed for refuelling.
Let’s put it in perspective of those development miles through which Freightliner put its electric wonder. In the electric eCascadia, that distance would have required about 4,300 recharge sessions given a 438-kWh battery. For a diesel Cascadia, an equal number of clicks would have needed about 530 stops. In an industry where downtime is a dirty word, that’s a big hurdle to clear. Being generous by estimating the EV takes an extra 60 mins per stop, this works out to an extra 3,770 hours or 157 days spent replenishing the machine with energy. Adding nearly half a year of downtime over a million miles is a non-starter for many fleet managers.
Freightliner knows this. Katie Rabideau, eMobility Product Manager at Daimler Truck, essentially acknowledged diesel isn’t going to totally vanish any time soon, saying the team expects it will remain in the energy mix; while it will eventually have a diminished role alongside electricity and hydrogen, it will likely be part of the equation for some spell. In other words, this middle-aged author doesn’t expect diesel semi-trucks to totally disappear in my lifetime.
Back behind the wheel, we drive back through the service roads surrounding Sonoma Speedway, threading our way on the tarmac and feeling like a linebacker trying to make their way down a narrow hedge-lined garden path lined without breaking any branches. Sightlines are tremendous, as one would both expect and hope for a machine of this size which shares road space with twee cars such as the Mazda MX-5. Road imperfections cause the sprung seat to slowly sway like an ocean liner, adding a level of movement not found in, say, your Ford F-150. Slightly disorientating at first, it doesn’t take long to integrate it into our brains as just part of the experience. The irony of being instructed to park it next to a huge Sunoco sign is not lost on us.
The eCascadia doesn’t look like a rolling science lab despite all the aero tricks – of which there are many. Active grilles and fairings plus repositioned mirrors do their part, while shifting of weight from the drive to tag axle takes advantage of changes in rolling resistance. Freightliner says it has netted over 25% improvement in some areas, and a solid 12% jump on the truck’s steer tires. In fact, so integrated are the changes that a lick of paint could cause this thing to slide in virtually unnoticed into a fleet of diesel eCascadia trucks – which is precisely the point in a segment where change is sometimes looked upon with great suspicion and distain.
It’d make sense for these aero lessons to make their way to diesel-powered Cascadia models in due course, as they likely will. No one expects the eCascadia and its EV guts to immediately take over the entire transportation market, but the use case may be there for some fleet managers occupied with short haul trucks which can take advantage of dedicated facilities at a depot.
Just don’t forget to slam the door. It’s a Freightliner thing.
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