Bavarian trucker plans world trip in electric lorry with 80 charges

Tobias Wagner plans to drive around the world in an electric lorry and make no more than 80 charging stops, BR reported. The journey will begin at the IAA commercial vehicle show in Hanover.

Wagner, who is from the Bavarian town of Mühldorf, has fitted the 800-horsepower electric vehicle with a living container. He calls the truck an expedition vehicle and plans to spend a year travelling in it.

The 33-year-old has driven 200,000 kilometres in various electric lorries over the past two years. He moved from Mühldorf to East Frisia because he could not find a company in Bavaria offering long-distance transport with electric commercial vehicles.

Wagner has worked as a professional driver in 24 countries, collecting and delivering goods. After two years on European routes, he decided to seek a new challenge beyond the continent.

After Hanover, he plans to travel through Turkey to Central Asia. He expects the journey to become more difficult there because charging infrastructure and qualified repair shops may not always be available. A breakdown in countries such as Uzbekistan or Ecuador could take longer to resolve than in Europe, he said.

Because the vehicle consists only of a tractor unit and living container, it is considerably lighter than a fully loaded long-haul lorry and has a longer range. Wagner plans to drive particularly long distances at the beginning of the journey and run the battery down further than usual before charging.

He will not transport goods during the trip because differing customs requirements would take too much time. Instead, he wants to identify what does not yet work well in different countries and what the logistics industry could learn from them. He also wants to explain the potential of electric vehicles in commercial transport.

Wagner says operating costs are a key factor in the logistics industry. At current electricity prices, he said, running an electric lorry costs about 10 euros per 100 kilometres.

From Central Asia, he plans to continue to China before taking a ship to Australia. He aims to reach the United States in spring 2027, then travel to Brazil and return to Europe by ship.