The all-electric Canter E-Cell truck is currently being tested for the European market. A total of eight vehicles are part of the test, which is being conducted in Portugal.

These customer trials with the Canter E-Cell under real-life conditions are set to run for one year, according to the company. The eight Canter E-Cell trucks are based on the Canter with a wheelbase of 3,400 mm and feature a single cab in the wide, comfort specification. Each is fitted with either a 4.3 m-long platform body or a 4.4 m-long box body.

The capabilities of these electrically-powered trucks will be put to the test under a wide range of conditions. The city of Lisbon will be using the Canter E-Cell for horticultural and waste disposal purposes, the city of Porto as a means of transport between its various municipal buildings and the city of Abrantes similarly in the field of horticulture. The company Transporta will use the Canter E-Cell for house-to-house deliveries as part of its short-radius distribution service, the energy supplier REN for transport purposes within the port area of the town of Sines, to the south of Lisbon. And lastly, the Canter E-Cell will be helping the Portuguese national postal service CTT with transport runs between its distribution centres in Lisbon.

Compared with the original prototype model, the Fuso Canter E-Cell has now seen considerable further development. The design of the electrically-powered light-duty truck is based on the chassis of the conventional Canter and allows a permissible gross vehicle weight of 6.0 t, according to the company. The resulting payload of the chassis is around 3.0 t.

The electric motor in the new Canter E-Cell gives it a top performance of 150 hp and high maximum torque of 650 Nm. Power transmission to the rear axle is via a single-speed transmission. Both the cardan shaft and the rear axle are components that have been adopted from the Canter with combustion engine. Good performance is a given, as it is a feature of the design of an electric motor that its maximum torque is available immediately upon start-up. The top speed of the Canter E-Cell, as with all vehicles in this weight class, is limited to 90 km/h.

Located on each side of the frame are a total of four battery packs, accommodated in two fully encapsulated boxes. These are lithium-ion batteries with a nominal capacity of 48.4 kWh. This gives the Fuso Canter E-Cell a range of over 100 km,according to the company. Charging the batteries at 230 volts takes around seven hours, while use of a rapid-charging system can reduce this to just one hour.