DHL Group has signed a new partnership with Daimler Truck and commercial vehicle rental firm hylane to deploy 30 fully electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 trucks in Germany by mid-2026. The lorries will be used for inter-parcel-centre transport in DHL’s Post & Parcel Germany division.
Under the agreement, announced at the Transport Logistic trade fair in Munich on 3 June 2025, DHL will not buy the lorries outright but instead lease them from hylane under a “pay-per-use” model, in which the company is billed per kilometre driven. According to the partners, this marks the largest electric truck contract signed in Germany so far this year.
The eActros 600 is the latest long-haul battery-electric truck from Mercedes-Benz Trucks. It has a battery capacity of over 600 kWh and a typical range of around 500 km, with the potential to reach over 1,000 km per day through recharging during mandated driver breaks. The model uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology and features a new e-axle designed specifically for long-distance transport.
The lorries will be charged exclusively at DHL depots, with no reliance on public charging infrastructure. DHL confirmed it will install new CCS chargers offering high-power charging at around 400 kW at selected sites to support this deployment. While the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) is not being used initially due to the current vehicle specifications, hylane can replace the vehicles with MCS-compatible versions in the future if needed.
The 30 electric trucks ordered by DHL are still eligible for funding under Germany’s now-expired KsNI (Climate-Friendly Commercial Vehicles and Infrastructure) scheme, which was designed to support the use of low-emission vehicles. While the subsidy does not apply to infrastructure, it covers 80% of the cost difference between a diesel and an electric truck. In this case, the financial support is received by hylane and indirectly benefits DHL through reduced leasing rates.
DHL has not disclosed cost figures under the kilometre-based leasing model but confirmed that higher mileage translates to greater savings. This is due to lower energy costs, reduced toll rates in Germany, and efficient charger utilisation.
hylane, a Cologne-based vehicle rental provider, has so far focused on fuel-cell trucks. The new agreement marks the company’s first large-scale expansion into battery-electric heavy goods vehicles.
“The addition of battery-electric trucks to our fleet is an important milestone,” said hylane MD Sara Schiffer. “As a technology-open provider, we focus on both battery and hydrogen-powered trucks to offer the best solution depending on the application.”
DHL’s existing fleet already includes 16 electric trucks, 450 CNG trucks, and more than 32,000 electric vans used for last-mile delivery. The group also operates 10 CNG fuelling stations and 41,000 charging points, and aims to reduce all emissions to net zero by 2050.
