VW subsidiary: truck manufacturer MAN receives backing from the state government

At the Munich truck manufacturer MAN, the signs are currently pointing to a storm.

But at least when it comes to the development of alternative drives, there is backing from the Free State.

• The Munich truck manufacturer

  MAN

  is facing a hot autumn in view of extensive conversion plans.

• The group wants to become more profitable and to cut

  9500 jobs

  .

• Prime Minister

  Markus Söder

  wants to support the group with the realignment.

Nuremberg - The crisis-ridden Munich truck manufacturer

wants to significantly accelerate the development of electric drives and hydrogen drives.

For example, the company wants to focus on battery-powered vehicles for buses in local public transport in the coming years, the group announced on Monday on the sidelines of a visit by Bavarian Prime Minister

(

) to

.

In the case of trucks, the first prototypes with a hydrogen combustion engine and a fuel cell drive will be tested from next year, it said.

The first practical tests should follow from 2023/24.

MAN: Söder agrees to support the development of alternative drives

Söder

agreed to support

.

“

should become the leading location for hydrogen technology,” wrote Söder on Twitter after the visit.

The Free State is working with

on the development of truck hydrogen engines in Nuremberg.

You are now igniting a “research turbo for green technologies”, wrote Söder.

Bavaria is to become the leading location for hydrogen technology: Cooperation with MAN for the development of truck hydrogen engines in Nuremberg.

With the high-tech agenda we are igniting the research turbo for green technologies.

Only a leap in technology will secure jobs in the long term.

pic.twitter.com/ZU1gmCVk1h

- Markus Söder (@Markus_Soeder) October 19, 2020

The Munich-based truck manufacturer is facing a comprehensive corporate restructuring.

In total, the group wants to cut 9,500 jobs, 7,000 of them in Germany alone.

The

(Rhineland-Palatinate),

(Saxony) and

(Upper Austria)

locations

are to be closed completely.

The works council has announced massive opposition.

If the plans “are implemented like this, the lion will no longer

roar in

five years” *, the works council head of the

plant in Steyr, Erich Schwarz, had warned.

The Bavarian state government had also rejected the plans.

"We will not accept cuts of this magnitude as they are now in the room," the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (FW) told Merkur.de.

According to the plans, the production of the light and medium series is

to be relocated

from Steyr to the

in Krakow.

This would affect around 2,300 jobs in the plant as well as around 2,300 jobs at suppliers in the region.

In addition, the component production is to be withdrawn from Salzgitter and also go to Poland.

This would cut a further 1,400 jobs at the Lower Saxony location.

There are also 1,300 jobs in the engine plant in

.

The biggest cuts are

planned

in

so far

.

In

-Stammwerk and administration 3,000 jobs are to be cut.

(dpa / utz)