Tailor-made eMobility

Like all eEconic, the vehicles featured in this article come from the assembly line of Europe's largest truck factory – the Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth. They only take their final shape 100 km further south, in what some might call the sleepy part of tranquil Alsace. The bustling workshops of Mercedes-Benz Custom Tailored Trucks (CTT) can be found in Molsheim, a town of just under 10,000 inhabitants.

At CTT, the future has traditionally been built. But this time the forward-looking gaze is directed at a vehicle that until now has only rarely been found in the prototype workshop's parking spaces: an eEconic.

The reason for the rare guest's visit to CTT is that the clocks tick differently in Australia. Not only in terms of the time difference, but also with regard to traffic regulations. A lot is at stake in the conversion: ultimately, it is about enabling Australian waste disposal companies to switch to eMobility.

The crux of the matter is that waste disposal companies in Australia cannot utilise the maximum payload with the standard eEconic due to differing calculation principles. Until now, the containers have been transported with diesel-based Econic with two driven rear axles (6x4). As of today, however, the eEconic is only available as standard with the 6x2/4 wheelbase.

The solution: a trailing axle with dual tyres. A concept that the CTT professionals adopted from the A-series – more precisely from the eActros – which usually occupies the sites in Molsheim. The new axle makes it possible to distribute the load of the superstructure in such a way that it fulfills the requirements of the Australian authorities.

The double tyre trailing axle is not the only modification to the new eEconic. To make the vehicles fit for Australia and the waste containers, the CTT team also extended the wheelbase of the eEconic from the standard 4 m to 4.6 m.

Because modifications to the eEconic have been rare until now, the conversion did present the Molsheim mechanics with certain (electro-)technical challenges, but they were also able to draw on their knowledge of the A-series – namely Actros, Arocs, Antos and Atego – which they have specialised in over the years.

This eEconic with a trailing axle with dual tyres is just one of ten. That's how many vehicles the Australian customer has ordered in total. When the prototype is finished in the so-called proto-studio, the meticulously documented "building instructions" in the form of codes and drawings will in this specific case be sent back to Wörth and multiplied by the colleagues there. Normally, this also takes place in Molsheim.

Work such as that on the eEconic has now been carried out at the CTT plant for almost 23 years. Since CTT was founded in 2000, around 22,000 truck axles have been installed in the small Alsatian town. In 2023, the Molsheim plant celebrated its 300,000th converted vehicle.

Why does CTT exist in Molsheim at all? The team leader of the Marketing and Special Conversions department, Alain Hirtz, explains the advantages of the manufacturing process compared to series production: "When you develop a new vehicle, you need a very long period for industrialisation. You have to organise this development in such a way that it is suitable for an assembly line producing 400 vehicles per day."

It's different at the plant in Alsace: "At CTT you also have development time, you also have to produce and test prototypes, quality must be ensured," Alain Hirtz clarifies. "But we don't need this long period of industrialisation, we can do it in a very short time. The advantage for the customer is obvious: Time-To-Market. Enquiry – delivery." That is the CTT principle.

As much as the engineers and mechanics at CTT have been able to draw on their wealth of experience with the eEconic, the challenges posed by the paradigm shift to eMobility are just as diverse. Only last year CTT began the first conversions of e-vehicles. And the adaptation of the combustion engine portfolio to zero emission, to emission-free vehicles, will continue to accompany the Molsheim-based company for some time to come.

"We will now go to the markets day by day, and the markets will also come to us and ask for the solutions they do not get from series production," explains Alain Hirtz. The Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) is available in different variants, but of course not enough for every worldwide specification. "And that means we will supplement the complete product portfolio for BEV."

The amount of work involved should not be underestimated. The new electrical components mean that thousands of assembly instructions and samples (around 2,800 codes) that have been collected over the years are suddenly obsolete. "We're starting from scratch in some places," says the team leader of the Marketing and Special Conversions department.

And that's not all: In the new year the series will also be adjusted to the General Safety Regulations (GSR) of the European Union – a completely new electrical architecture that incorporates a wide range of complex sensors that everyone will have to gain experience with.

For Alain Hirtz there is no question that CTT will master this upheaval. After all, the professionals for customised vehicles have already been confronted with a general overhaul of their portfolio during the transition to the Strategic Future Truck Program (SFTP) – and have also delivered reliably. Like the Econic.