VEGA's eActros 600 triumphs at the eNordkapp Challenge

The eNordkapp Challenge is a long-distance challenge for fully electric vehicles that has started every year at the end of December since 2018. The goal is the famous North Cape in Norway – the northernmost point in Europe reachable by car. It is organised by the Swiss Peer Haupt. The eNordkapp Challenge 2025 starts on 27 December in Oldenburg (Bremen) and ends on 5 January at the North Cape. The spectacular winter route runs through central Sweden along the legendary Inlandsvägen.

Already in 2024, Franz Blum, managing director and owner of VEGA, drew the Salentinigs' attention to the eNordkapp Challenge and sparked their interest. As a pioneer in electromobility, VEGA has already set milestones: its electric truck fleet includes, in addition to the Mercedes‑Benz eActros, other all-electric trucks.

Herbert Salentinig is Managing Director of VEGA's Italy branch. He gained experience early in his career as a truck and bus driver and is firmly rooted in the transport industry. Silvia Salentinig completed her truck driving test ahead of the tour and can thus share the driving with her husband Herbert.

Already on Christmas Eve the VEGA team — initially without a trailer — set off for Oldenburg, the starting point of the eNordkapp Challenge. For the demanding tour they chose the eActros 600 with a vehicle transport trailer, a combination that is used as standard in the haulier’s day-to-day operations: twin‑tyred — which would later prove not necessarily ideal on snowy roads — loaded with a Sprinter and fully packed with equipment.

The further north you travel, the greater the challenges become: the roads in Sweden, Norway and Finland are not cleared, and depending on how compacted the snow is—especially during snowfall or where ruts have formed—you have to be extremely focused. “The snow is powder‑dry because of the cold, the surface is sometimes unstable and you have to be very careful in the bends,” Herbert says. “With the articulated lorry we're naturally overall slower than other participants in cars.”

Charging times at charging stations also vary. Charging stations are not always easy to use. Often you have to unhitch, the charging cables are too short, or the charging station doesn't work because the card reader is frozen.

This is how Team VEGA ends up at a charging station with only 12% battery capacity left. They find the station's display frozen. A first, quiet doubt begins to make itself felt.

In the end, however, the battery can be charged. The certainty that the local residents would support Silvia and Herbert gives them the confidence they need to continue their adventurous journey. At minus 41 degrees Celsius, the car teams are also battling the cold.  

Overall, the two are very satisfied with the performance of the eActros 600. It is a true "workhorse", as Herbert Salentinig says: "It runs absolutely trouble-free down to minus 20 degrees. I'm glad that I was able to drive the Mercedes‑Benz Truck."

The final climb to the North Cape is yet another challenge. The narrow, partly icy road snakes up the steep rock faces in hairpin bends, and deep chasms demand the utmost concentration. Silvia and Herbert Salentinig reach the North Cape while it's still dark, the wind blows icy cold in their faces. They've made it!