On June 4, 2025, Mercedes-Benz Trucks set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title with its battery-electric long-haul eActros 600 truck, including a semitrailer, traveling a total distance of 124.7 kilometers (77.5 miles) in reverse.
While some people can’t back a car into a parking spot without a camera or AI guidance, driver Marco Hellgrewe, 50, from Berlin, Germany—an officer in the German Armed Forces and a truck enthusiast—broke the previous reverse mark by a truck by some 36 kilometers (~22.4 miles). The previous record of 89 kilometers (~55.3 miles) was set in 2020 in a diesel truck in the US.
The new record was set on the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben racetrack in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, taking a total time of six hours and 22 minutes, at an average speed of 20 kilometers per hour (12.4 mph).
The track has 14 tight bends and offers fewer risks of having to stop and interrupt the record attempt than public roads. As part of the record, however, the eActros 600 was driven an additional 30 kilometers on public roads, between Oschersleben and the German town of Halberstadt. This planned finish line was at the Daimler Truck Global Parts Center, which will officially open on July 10.
The facility will gradually take on worldwide deliveries of spare parts for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, and the successful world-record attempt was meant to draw attention to it and the relevance of electrification for the transportation sector and society at large, with road safety a chief feature.
This isn’t Hellgrewe’s first record, as he first set the backward record in 2008, then traveled a total reverse distance of 64 kilometers (~39.8 miles) in a diesel truck.
Marco Hellgrewe stated, “I’m incredibly proud to have brought back the record to Germany together with Mercedes-Benz Trucks—especially as it was a world first with an all-electric drive. By doing so, we have sent out a powerful message for the future of alternative drives. I am convinced that we have also drawn broad attention to the topics of road safety and driver image, which are particularly important to me as an examiner of learner truck drivers, who tend to be younger. There have been many people from every area of society, including numerous experienced and learner truck drivers, who have spoken to me about the activity and given me very positive feedback.”
He continued, “The very long trip with a total of 476 bends demanded an enormous effort—for this reason alone, it was a great help that the eActros 600 and its assistance systems made the driving so much easier.”
Mercedes-Benz Trucks launched the eActros 600 in November 2024, with deliveries to customers taking place the next month.
The electric flagship from Mercedes-Benz Trucks has already proven its capabilities several times under real-life conditions:
- In customer use and as part of the “eActros 600 European Testing Tour 2024,” a 15,000-kilometer (~9,320 miles) all-electric development trip through a total of 22 countries;
- The “European Testing Tour Winter 2025” is around 6,500 kilometers (~4,039 miles) through Northern Europe, each with a gross combination mass of 40 tons.
In addition, the e-truck was voted “International Truck of the Year 2025” by the International Truck of the Year organization, consisting of 24 commercial vehicle journalists from Europe.
The eActros 600 has a high battery capacity of over 600 kilowatt-hours—hence the model designation 600—and a new, particularly efficient electric drive axle developed in-house enables the truck to achieve a range of 500 kilometers (~311 miles) without intermediate charging.
This range is accomplished under very realistic and practical conditions with a gross combination mass of 40 tons, which can also be significantly exceeded depending on the driving style and the route. The eActros 600 will even be able to cover well over 1,000 kilometers (~621 miles) per day. Intermediate charging during statutory driver breaks makes this possible, provided that charging options are available.
The eActros 600 has three battery packs, each with 207 kWh. These offer an installed total capacity of 621 kWh. The batteries are based on lithium iron phosphate cell technology (LFP) and are characterized by a long service life.
The development engineers at Mercedes-Benz Trucks designed the eActros 600 to meet the same requirements for the durability of vehicles and components as a comparable conventional heavy-duty long-haul Actros. This means up to 1.2 million kilometers (~745,645 miles) in 10 years of operation. After this period of use, the battery packs’ state of health should still be above 80 percent. In contrast to other battery cell technologies, more than 95 percent of the installed capacity can also be used with LFP technology. This facilitates a higher range with the same installed battery capacity.
The vehicle is technically designed for a gross combination mass of up to 44 tons. With a standard semitrailer, the eActros 600 has a payload of around 22 tons in the EU. There might be cases in which national law allows higher payloads.
There are currently fewer than 1,000 charging points for heavy commercial vehicles across Europe.
To compensate for the existing deficit at least partially, Daimler Truck announced a concept for its own semi-public charging network in March of this year. It is planned to extend to over 3,000 fast charging points in Europe by 2030, making it the largest in Europe.
The new semi-public charging option for electric trucks, as a solution provided by the Daimler Truck brand TruckCharge, is intended to enable depots to open their charging infrastructure for third-party paid use.
There is no confirmed widespread commercial release in North America yet, although it's possible that select fleets or pilot programs may be testing or importing the vehicle through special arrangements. Service Truck Magazine only thought the reverse record was cool.