I also wonder whether logistics companies can fit charging into their existing operations; delivery vehicles have to come back to a depot once they are empty, and there must be a period of downtime while the van is being filled.
These companies also know the distances each van has to travel to deliver it's combination of packages, in effect you have the information to eliminate range anxiety. You could have a percentage of your fleet electric, and put them on routes which were high density and near the depot. You could then be confident that they will return to depot with charge to spare, and recharge them at the loading bays while waiting in the normal course of operations.
This truck can charge fully in an hour, so assuming a half hour turnaround time for reloading, there would be no downtime on a route thirty miles or less. As the range and the speed of charging increase, the percentage of the fleet which you could switch to electric would increase.
If it's hard to put the euro symbol with your keyboard, try maybe to write 3500 euros, I had to stop to understand what you meant.
It is of course not adapted if your depot is outside of the city and you need first to drive 20 miles to reach the city and deliver and drive back. This is the current state for parcel delivery with relatively large parcel hubs a bit outside of the cities. But just doubling the range to 140/150 miles should be good enough.
Also this is only the beginning of production. "Daimler said it's only planning on producing 500 trucks in the next year, but it intends to start mass-producing the trucks in 2019".
“The company will expand its electric truck production as lower cost, longer-range batteries become available within two to three years,”
These trucks would probably be used for last mile deliveries in urban areas.
For long-haul semis, batteries would likely have to be swapped. That way you can exchange batteries during mandatory breaks so that you only need 4hrs capacity. Batteries can then be charged when prices are lowest and used as storage.
I'm just not sure where breakeven would be in that case. Assuming you need several battery packs per truck, initial costs would be too high for most logistics companies. Could maybe work if batteries are owned by utilities and only rented out for the duration of a trip. That would ensure they're used properly while not driven.
Also, recharging for 30 minutes while loading/unloading can make a large difference to these kinds of trucks.
PS: 227$/kwh * 200 kwh = 45,400$ which is a major reason battery packs tend to 1/3 to 1/2 that. However, prices a dropping rapidly and the savings over gas is rather large so expect very long range electric trucks eventually.
3 trucks is basically 0 trucks.
For trucks that are not used a lot, this solution could end up cheaper because the battery can be used profitably while the truck is waiting.