A German truck driver turned YouTube creator is planning to circle the globe in a battery-electric semi. Tobias Wagner, who posts under the handle "Elektrotrucker," will drive a Mercedes eActros 600 roughly 45,000 km through more than 35 countries starting in autumn 2026. If completed as planned, it would be the first circumnavigation by a series-production battery-electric truck.
The numbers behind the ambition
Wagner is targeting no more than 80 charging stops for the entire route — an average of more than 560 miles per charge. That's a stretch even by the truck's own specs: Mercedes rates the eActros 600 at roughly 310 miles (500 km) on the EU's WLTP range-test standard at a loaded weight of 40 metric tons. Pulling off the target average would require careful load management, favorable terrain, and some generous tailwinds.
The truck carries three lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery packs totaling approximately 621 kWh of capacity. It charges via two CCS connectors — the European CCS2 standard — at up to 400 kW combined. Mercedes has also announced future compatibility with MCS (megawatt charging system), which could bring an 20–80% charge in roughly 30 minutes, though that capability isn't yet standard equipment.
The expedition-spec Mercedes eActros 600 features a custom residential module, aerodynamic bodywork, and dual CCS charging ports for Wagner's planned yearlong, 45,000-km world tour.
A custom rig for rough roads
The expedition truck is not a standard tractor-trailer configuration. Wagner and Mercedes settled on a 4×2 rigid platform truck — a single-unit design with no separate trailer — fitted with a custom residential module behind the cab where Wagner will live during the yearlong trip. The build also includes aerodynamic modifications to extend range, extra lighting, new wheels, and custom graphics. The team had to balance low aerodynamic drag against the ground clearance needed for roads well outside Western Europe.
What this trip is actually trying to prove
Wagner has logged around 200,000 km of professional electric truck driving since mid-2024, operating across 22 European countries for Nanno Janssen, an East Frisian logistics company running an all-electric fleet. The world tour is a deliberate push against a persistent knock on battery-electric trucks: that they only work in short-haul urban logistics, not long-haul or off-the-beaten-path routes.
The eActros 600 is a European-market product, built at Mercedes' Wörth am Rhein plant in Germany, and is not sold in the United States. But the expedition will pass through charging infrastructure — and a lack thereof — that will put real stress on the technology in ways that no controlled European fleet test can replicate.
