Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus, said at the event: "MAN is accelerating its transformation and taking big steps towards emission-free drive systems. Our focus at MAN and in the Traton Group is clearly on battery-electric drives. They form the basis for our heavy-duty e-trucks, which we will be launching on the market from 2024.”
That year, which is almost a year earlier than originally planned, an initial 200 units are expected to be made.
In addition to accelerating the ramp-up of electric mobility, the commercial vehicle manufacturer is intensifying its research into hydrogen mobility. To this end, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder and Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger today presented a funding commitment of 8.5 million euros for the "Bavarian Fleet" (Bayernflotte) project, which involves MAN and industrial partners Bosch, Faurecia and ZF. In 2024, MAN trucks with hydrogen fuel cells are to prove their suitability at five customers in Bavaria: BayWa, DB Schenker, GRESS Spedition, Rhenus Logistics and Spedition Dettendorfer. They will test their hydrogen-powered fuel cell trucks in real-life operations for one year.
Vlaskamp said: “Only when sufficient green hydrogen and the corresponding infrastructure are available well after 2030 do we expect to use H2 trucks in selected areas of application. That is why we are researching the topic of hydrogen and the funding from the state of Bavaria enables us to build up further expertise in the field."
As well as the new emission-free drives, MAN is developing comprehensive eMobility solutions that prepare customers for vehicle use at an early stage. "We need to drive the electrification of our fleet even faster. However, we will only succeed in ramping up e-mobility if we support our customers in their transition and convince them to do so. To this end, we are creating integrated digital solutions and charging offers," explains Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus.
A central component on the way to emission-free drives are the vehicle batteries. MAN began building up its own expertise in the assembly of battery packs as early as spring 2021. The nucleus for this is the eMobility Technical Centre at the Nuremberg site, where the first battery packs for e-vehicle testing and internal tests have since been produced in individual production.
Battery packs are the largest units of vehicle batteries in commercial vehicles. The battery cells are integrated and controlled in them. In the series-produced MAN Lion's City E city bus, a battery pack has a capacity of 80 kWh. Six battery packs are currently installed in a 12-metre city bus, resulting in a range of up to 350 km. At the Efficiency Run in May 2021, the MAN Lion's City E demonstrated that it can achieve even significantly greater ranges under optimum everyday conditions. For 24 hours, the MAN electric bus travelled 550km on a public transport line in Munich - without intermediate charging. The MAN eBus drive showed what ranges are already possible today and that these also depend on influencing factors such as topography, driving style and use of heating or air conditioning.