







News of the week
Amazon, Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Nippon Gases, Hoyer Group, XPENG, MAN Truck & Bus
Amazon places an order for more than 200 Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 trucks, the first hydrogen-powered truck for dry ice transport hits the road in Germany, XPENG AeroHT plans to launch a flying car called the "Land Aircraft Carrier" by 2026, and MAN Truck & Bus has become the first truck manufacturer to release a dataset of 747 real-world driving scenarios for autonomous vehicles. These are the top stories from Week 3 of 2025.
Amazon places an order for more than 200 Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 trucks, the first hydrogen-powered truck for dry ice transport hits the road in Germany, XPENG AeroHT plans to launch a flying car called the "Land Aircraft Carrier" by 2026, and MAN Truck & Bus has become the first truck manufacturer to release a dataset of 747 real-world driving scenarios for autonomous vehicles. These are the top stories from Week 3 of 2025.
- 1. Mega Deal: Amazon Orders Over 200 Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 Trucks
- 2. Germany’s First Hydrogen Truck for Dry Ice Transport
- 3. XPENG AeroHT Plans to Launch Flying Car “Land Aircraft Carrier” by 2026
- 4. MAN TruckScenes: The World’s First Open Dataset of Sensor and Driving Data for Autonomous Trucks

Amazon has placed an order with Mercedes-Benz Trucks for more than 200 eActros 600 trucks, with deliveries set to begin in 2025. This order comes on top of the 38 electric trucks Amazon already operates across Europe as of the end of 2024.
The bulk of these new trucks — more than 140 units — will be deployed in the UK, with over 50 trucks destined for Germany. The large-scale order follows a successful trial of a close-production prototype of the eActros 600 at one of Amazon's logistics centers in Germany.
The eActros 600 boasts a battery capacity of over 600 kWh and a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles). Amazon plans to use the trucks for “middle mile” routes between logistics hubs and cities. This order marks both, the largest electric truck purchase ever made by Amazon and the biggest e-truck deal for Mercedes-Benz Trucks in history.


Nippon Gases Germany and the Hoyer Group have launched Germany’s first hydrogen-powered truck for transporting dry ice. The vehicle, a Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell, was leased through Hylane’s rental model and offers a range of 450 kilometers (280 miles) with a refueling time of less than 15 minutes.
The truck was handed over on January 8, 2025, in Hürth, with North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister for Economic Affairs, Mona Neubaur, highlighting the importance of hydrogen technology in advancing sustainable transport solutions.


Chinese tech company XPENG AeroHT aims to bring a flying car to market by 2026, dubbed the “Land Aircraft Carrier.” The company, a subsidiary of Chinese automaker XPENG, showcased the vehicle at CES in Las Vegas and reported that it has already received over 3,000 pre-orders.
The concept features a three-axle van capable of seating four to five passengers, with a detachable copter at the rear that seats two people. The six-wheeled ground vehicle will be built on an 800-volt platform, offering a range of over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
The airborne module is designed as an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) with a dual six-rotor system, foldable propellers, and a 270-degree panoramic cockpit. For added safety, the flight module will include redundant systems for propulsion, power, and flight controls.


MAN Truck & Bus made history as the first truck manufacturer to release a comprehensive dataset of sensor and vehicle data from real-world autonomous driving test runs. Dubbed MAN TruckScenes, the dataset includes 747 driving scenarios collected during development drives, making it openly available to manufacturers, universities, and software developers working on autonomous driving technologies.
This open data-sharing initiative is designed to accelerate development of standardized data formats and improve comparisons of results and methods across the industry. It also aims to facilitate collaboration with external development partners.
The dataset primarily covers driving scenarios on German Autobahns and access roads, as well as terminal operations, addressing the needs of hub-to-hub transport — a key focus area for MAN's autonomous driving strategy.
The dataset features information from four cameras, six LiDARs, six radars, two inertial measurement units (IMUs) for spatial positioning, and high-precision global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data.
MAN TruckScenes is the first dataset to include 4D radar data with full 360-degree coverage, making it the largest annotated radar dataset with 3D bounding boxes currently available.
