Hamburger Hochbahn AG operates the city of Hamburg’s bus system, and they’ve just placed an order with Daimler Buses for 350 fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro buses to be delivered to the northern German city for use as zero-emission public transport.

Hamburger Hochbahn AG becomes the latest bus operator to put in a major order with Daimler – as I type this, fully 95 examples of the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro electric buse have already been deployed on the streets of Hamburg through Vhh.mobility, with both Mercedes and Vhh.mobility calling the bus fleet’s arrival a major step towards CO2-neutral local transport.

“I am very pleased that, together with vhh.mobility, we can make a significant contribution to emission-free local transport in the Hamburg metropolitan region,” says Till Oberwörder, CEO of Daimler Buses. “Our battery-electric eCitaro city bus offers an excellent overall package: The modern, long-range electric drive ensures that passengers reach their destinations quietly and locally CO₂-neutrally. Advanced assistance systems also increase safety in all road traffic conditions.”

When discussing their order, Hamburger Hochbahn AG representatives said they were particularly impressed by the low total cost of ownership (TCO) and the ease of maintenance offered by the Mercedes eCitaro electric bus over its service life.

The Mercedes eCitaro buses ship with 98 kWh battery packs, configured in either 294, 392, 490, or 588 kWh specifications, depending on what’s needed by the bus operator. Hamburger Hochbahn AG plans to convert its entire fleet to emission-free drive systems by 2030, and the company goes to great efforts to ensure that 100% of the energy it uses to charge those vehicles comes from sustainable and truly “green” sources.

Electrek’s Take

Replacing diesels with electric vehicles in heavily populated areas has solid, observable, measurable benefits – not just in terms of cost, but in terms of reducing surface-level air pollution and improving overall quality of life. There’s absolutely no way to continue to justify the use of diesel in urban transit, and it’s great to see that Hamburg agrees.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Daimler Trucks, via Power Progress.

Electric equipment from XCMG can now be ordered with interchangeable battery swap tech, enabling heavy trucks and construction equipment to swap out their BYD-developed, 400 kWh battery packs in just three minutes, and top-off as quickly as diesel.

Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (XCMG, for short) may not be a household name here in the US, but the Chinese multinational is the third largest manufacturer of construction machinery in the world – and, with the launch of a full line of heavy equipment featuring battery-swap technology, they’re making a case for becoming the number 1 HDEV manufacturer sooner than later.

And we’re not just talking about off-highway and heavy equipment – the XCMG’s swappable BYD batteries are making their way to on-road trucks as well … but we’ll get to that.

XCMG ZNK95 electric autonomous haul truck

XCMG showed off its latest electric equipment at last month’s Bauma China show, including an updated version of its of its 85-ton autonomous electric mining truck. Known as the ZNK95 (above), the truck features a fully cab-less design – meaning there isn’t even a place for an operator to sit, let alone operate. That’s too bad, too, because what operator wouldn’t want to experience a dedicated permanent magnet synchronous electric drive system capable of putting out 800 kW (1070 hp) and 22,000 Nm (16,200 lb-ft) of torque?

But autonomous solutions aren’t about hp and torque – they’re about keeping operators out of extreme and dangerouns environments. To that end, XCMG says its new HDEVs are fully capable of operating in high-altitude, extremely cold environments with temperatures as low as -40°C (a temp. that most diesels wouldn’t be able to start at, let alone run).

Even in those extreme climates, the XCMG gets the job done with an autonomous driving system that integrates a number of multiple cutting-edge technologies that combine environmental perception, decision-making and planning, vehicle control, and communication into a single dashboard that can be monitored by the fleet manager.

The system can even diagnose faults on individual vehicles and bring them back to service before they break down in the field – a huge potential problem if a truck or dozer gets caught underground!

The ZNK95 has already been deployed at a large, open-pit mine in Inner-Mongolia, China, that has adopted a comprehensive unmanned and electrified construction solution from XCMG Machinery for its latest “green” mining operation. The company says the mine will emit 149,000 fewer tons of harmful carbon emissions than it would with diesel haul trucks annually by the time its full order of ZNK95s is delivered in 2026.

But wait, there’s more …

If you needed a reminder that China is light-years ahead of the US when it comes to electrification tech (and, yes, I know light-years measure distance and not time – grow up), you should know that XCMG’s swappable battery tech, which features 400 kWh packs using BYD blade-style battery cells packed at a facility that’s run as a JV between XCMG and BYD, is such a non-event in a country that’s seen millions of swaps that it didn’t even merit a press release at Bauma.

The trucks were just shown, and even that was after more than 1500 of the battery-swap capable MDEVs (XCMG’s new XG2 EX630S cabovers) was already delivered to customers in China and put into service.

In fact, the only reason I know about it at all was because I follow Etrucks New Zealand, an XCMG dealer, on LinkedIn, and he was talking it up.

“XCMG are by far the dominant EV exhibitor at Bauma Shanghai. Here a truck crane solution to swap construction machine batteries,” said Ross Linton, owner and President of Etrucks New Zealand. “Here a truck crane solution to swap construction machine batteries.”

XCMG battery swap crane

I’ll be at CES next week, where I’m sure Caterpillar will be playing up its 100th anniversary, John Deere will once again show off a new, updated remote/autonomous solution, and Volvo will reveal another new addition to its HDEV line-up. None of them are likely to show up with a practical battery-swap EV solution that’s ready to deploy, today.

Instead, they’re all playing catch up – if they’re aware of XCMG at all.

SOURCES | IMAGES: Etrucks New Zealand, International Mining, USS.

Tesla drivers in Sweden are stuck in wait lines at Superchargers stations. Tesla blames union strikes preventing them from connecting their new stations to the grid.

For more than a year now, Tesla service workers in Sweden have been on strike, demanding inclusion in a collective agreement.

Tesla has historically opposed unions and successfully resisted unionization at its manufacturing facilities. Initially, this strike in Sweden seemed manageable, involving only a few dozen workers. However, Tesla underestimated the strength of solidarity among Swedish workers.

While the automaker managed to get around the service workers strike, it is now feeling the impact of “sympathy strikes” from other unions in Sweden.

Several other unions in the country, including port workers, electricians, and cleaning services that work with Tesla, have refused to cooperate with the company in support of the strike.

Now, one of those sympathy strikes is really starting to cause trouble to Tesla owners, and other EV owners.

Union IF Metall used its influence to prevent Tesla from powering new Supercharger stations to put pressure to bring them to the negotiation table, and during the holidays, it is resulting in extremely long lines at the working Supercharger stations, as some posted on X (Nicklas Nilsso):

We have seen long wait lines at Tesla Superchargers before, but I think this might be the longest I’ve ever seen.

The same Tesla owner posted a local Supercharger map that showed that the vast majority of stations in the country currently required wait times to access a charger:

Max de Zegher, Tesla’s head of charging, commented on the situation and blamed the union strikes for preventing over 100 new Superchargers from being energized:

The automaker is also facing growing union pushbacks in Germany.

Electrek’s Take

That’s a bummer. As de Zegher says, wait lines at chargers are not a great look for EVs. The good news is that most people know the reason for this problem in this specific case is this union dispute rather than an actual problem with EVs.

Now, of course, Tesla blames it on the unions, and the unions blame it on Tesla for not engaging with them.

Can’t we just all be friends?