For a long time, truck manufacturers were skeptical about electric drives because of the loss in payload.
But the VW subsidiary Traton has now put away the concerns.
Munich - The VW commercial vehicle holding Traton around its core brands MAN and Scania wants to invest significantly more money in the development of electric drives in the coming years than previously planned.
By 2025, instead of the previous one billion euros, a total of 1.6 billion euros will now be earmarked for research and development in this area, Traton announced on Monday in Munich.
At the same time, spending on conventional drives would be reduced.
In 2025, less than a fifth of the investments in product development should go into conventional drives.
"Traton is clearly relying on the electric truck," said CEO Matthias Gründler, according to the announcement.
The switch will take place step by step and in accordance with the necessary network expansion, it said.
VW subsidiary Traton: Specific targets for MAN and Scania
According to the plans, half of the new buses at the Munich truck manufacturer MAN in 2025 should have an alternative drive.
In 2030, at least 60 percent of trucks for delivery traffic and 40 percent of trucks for long-distance transport will be emission-free, Traton announced.
At Scania, around ten percent of all vehicles are expected to have electric drives in 2025, and every second vehicle is expected to have an electric drive in 2030.
Recently there had been great doubts in the industry about the practical suitability of electric drives due to the high battery weights and the corresponding losses in the available payload.
Traton is now surprisingly clearly focusing on electric drives.
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Battery-electric trucks are the “cheaper and environmentally friendly solution” compared to hydrogen trucks, especially on long-haul routes.
The reason given was that, in the case of hydrogen trucks, only “a quarter of the output energy flows into the drive”, the remaining three quarters are lost from the output energy to the road.
“The ratio is the other way around with e-trucks,” said Gründler.
However, the hydrogen truck should also establish itself on the market in the next ten years.
They could play a role in regions with inexpensive CO2-free electricity, as well as in long-distance coaches, which cannot be sufficiently charged during the breaks.
VW subsidiary Traton expects a significant increase in sales for 2021
Traton expects a strong increase in sales and turnover for the current year.
The order situation has recently improved significantly, the company announced on Wednesday.
The operating profit margin should be between five and six percent.
In the pre-Corona year 2019, Traton had still achieved a profit margin of seven percent.
However, Traton had not yet considered expenses for the restructuring of MAN in its forecast.
The corresponding amount should be in the upper three-digit million amount.
The Munich truck manufacturer is expected to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of next year.
