1,600 Volkswagen Electric Trucks For Brazil

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Volkswagen makes electric trucks? Well, yes, it does — or it will. Not only that, but Ambev Brewery in Brazil has ordered a whopping 1,600 of them.

Oh, but just to be clear, the orders are to be fulfilled by 2023. Production, CleanTechnica was told, is expected to begin in 2020.

Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus (VWCO) is the arm of VW that will produce the e-Delivery electric truck on order. It’s no Tesla Semi in terms of looks, but it is a fully electric delivery truck that Ambev Brewery apparently determined has compelling specs. By the time the orders are complete, it’s estimated 35% of Ambev Brewery’s fleet will be “clean energy vehicles.”

Upon inquiry, CleanTechnica was told that the source of batteries was under development and they would range in size from 80 kWh to 240 kWh, “optimized for vehicle range requirement.”

VW has not been alone in developing the e-Delivery electric truck. Eletra, a joint venture of a Brazilian company and a Chinese company, was involved in the prototype’s creation as well. “It is equipped with the new WEG AL160 electric motor, which delivers 80 kW (109 hp) power, with maximum torque of 493 N·m and an Allison automatic transmission. It uses LiFePO4 lithium-ion battery packs.

“The e-Delivery model offers two recharging options: the fast opportunity recharge, where it is possible to ensure 30% of the load in just 15 minutes, and can be carried out several times along the route of the vehicle to increase its autonomy; or slow recharge, which takes 3 hours for a full charge.”

What’s the big question still on your mind? Of course, how much range will this cougar have on a single charge? The max range will reportedly be 200 kilometers (124 miles), but there will be various configuration options — 9 to 11 different models in total.

The regenerative braking in the e-Delivery truck has three settings. It can recover up to 30% of used energy while braking.

As you know since you’ve read CleanTechnica every day for the past year, this is by far the biggest order of electric delivery vehicles from VW.

“Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus’ global development center, headquartered in Brazil, investigated and applied the best solutions available in the world and locally to satisfy our customers’ needs in low emission vehicles for emerging countries. Thanks to our 20-year long partnership with Ambev, we have been the first to develop commercial vehicles for beverage distribution. And now, once more, we sprint off together to enter the electric era.” —Roberto Cortes, CEO of VW Caminhões e Ônibus, noted.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about this order and the VW Caminhões e Ônibus e-Delivery.


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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