← ALL TOOLS· 02ELECTRICLIVE — RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER
Truck route planner
Hamburg → Mannheim, 557 km over the A7 and A5 — real routed geometry and elevation. Pick one of five electric trucks, set temperature and starting charge, and see which chargers it needs, how long it stands, and when it doesn't make it at all.
AMBIENT
VERDICT
1 stop · 1 h 09 charging · 11 h 14 door-to-door · arrive at 47 %
- Depart Hamburg90 % · 540 kWhkm 0
- Drive 372 km6 h 44km 0 → 372
- Bad Hersfeld (A7)arrive 11 % → depart 80 % · +418 kWh · 1 h 09 @ 400 kW eff.COUNTS AS EU 561/2006 DRIVER BREAK
- Drive 185 km3 h 21km 372 → 557
- Arrive Mannheim47 % · 11 h 14 totalkm 557
1.10 kWh/km base × 1.045 weight (44 t) × 1.00 temp (20 °C) × 0.849 speed (55 km/h) = 0.98 kWh/km · gradient net +130 kWh · usable 600 kWh · charge power × 1.00
Illustrative estimator on a share-based consumption model (VECTO-order magnitudes) with public OEM specs — not a certified range prediction. Charging locations are synthetic corridor examples. Route data © openrouteservice / OpenStreetMap contributors, baked offline.
How it works — physics, data sources, scope
The consumption model. Each truck starts from a flat base figure (kWh/km, public OEM positioning, 40 t reference), scaled by three factors: weight (the ~45 % rolling-resistance-and-inertia share), temperature (a bathtub curve — heating dominates in cold), and speed (the ~40 % aerodynamic share scales with v²). The applied factors are shown under the itinerary, so every number can be decomposed.
What cold actually does. Three separate effects: consumption rises (×1.25 at −10 °C), usable capacity shrinks (×0.92), and a cold pack accepts far less DC power (×0.55) — so every charging stop nearly doubles. Try the eActros 600 at 20 °C and at −10 °C: identical drive time, very different standing time.
Elevation and regeneration. Every segment adds its climb energy m·g·Δh; descents give back 60 % through regenerative braking. Hills always cost net energy — visible in the Kassel hills in the profile chart.
Charging and driver breaks. DC charging runs at full power to ~55 % SoC, then tapers; stops charge to 80 % because the last 20 % is disproportionately slow. Any dwell of 45 minutes or more counts as the mandatory EU 561/2006 driver break, so a well-placed charge hides the break inside it.
Stop planning. A farthest-reachable greedy: while the battery would cross the 10 % planning reserve before Mannheim, insert the farthest charger still reachable and re-simulate. When no charger is in reach, the route line turns grey exactly where the reserve is crossed.
Data. Route geometry, drive time and elevation come from openrouteservice (HGV profile, © OpenStreetMap contributors), baked offline — no API calls at runtime. Truck figures are coarse public OEM specs; the four charging locations are synthetic corridor examples. Not modelled: traffic, wind, payload variation, charger queues, per-model charging curves.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How far can an electric truck drive in winter?
Cold hits three ways at once: consumption rises (about ×1.25 at −10 °C), usable battery capacity shrinks (×0.92), and a cold pack accepts much less DC charging power (×0.55) — so every charging stop nearly doubles. On the simulated Hamburg–Mannheim corridor the drive time at −10 °C is identical to summer; the standing time is what grows.
How many charging stops does an electric truck need from Hamburg to Mannheim?
In this simulation, a Mercedes eActros 600 at 20 °C with a 90 % starting charge covers the 557 km corridor with 1 charging stop of about 69 min. Any stop of 45 min or more doubles as the mandatory EU driver break, so a well-placed charge hides the break inside it.
Do electric trucks recover energy on downhill grades?
Partly: this model credits 60 % of the descent energy back through regenerative braking. The asymmetry is the point — hills always cost net energy, which the elevation profile makes visible in the Kassel hills.