MAN wants to convert the Munich site into a lead plant for e-trucks - new group boss announces investment in millions
Created: 01/27/2022, 06:30
By: Martin Prem, Thomas Schmidtutz
Alexander Vlaskamp: The new MAN boss wants to bring calm to the group and convert the company towards electric drives.
© Peggy Bergman/dpa
The Munich truck manufacturer MAN wants to make the main plant in Munich fit for the e-offensive - and dig deep into their pockets for it.
Munich
– MAN intends to convert its production facility in the north-west of Munich into a lead plant for electric trucks in the coming years and thus secure the location in the long term.
"We will invest a mid-three-digit million amount in Munich for the conversion and the planned ramp-up of production of e-trucks by around the middle of the decade," announced the new MAN boss Alexander Vlaskamp to
Merkur.de
.
The research and development department at the Munich location will also focus more on the topic of autonomous driving.
The first test drives in Bavaria are to begin in the first half of the year, said Vlaskamp.
A test driver will always be on board and can take over the wheel at any time, said the Dutchman.
New MAN boss: Munich will remain the headquarters
At the same time, Vlaskamp countered speculation that the Munich site could become less important in the long term given the ongoing restructuring program and the partial relocation of production from Munich to the Polish MAN plant in Kraków. "Munich will continue to be our headquarters," assured the new MAN boss.
The former Scania manager Vlaskamp surprisingly replaced the then MAN boss Andreas Tostmann at the end of November.
The change in leadership was preceded by fierce trench warfare, which was also held publicly, between Tostmann, who was considered idiosyncratic, and the MAN works council.
In addition, there is said to have been a deep rift between Tostmann and the other members of the executive committee within the board.
In the end, this was the deciding factor for Tostmann's replacement, said a person familiar with the events at
Merkur.de
.
New MAN boss: 7,500 long-term employees at the site
The new MAN boss assured that the workforce of 7,500 that had been agreed with the employees would remain at the plant.
The target should be reached by the end of 2023.
The group currently employs a good 8,000 people in Munich.
The remaining 500 or so jobs will be eliminated primarily through natural fluctuation and partial retirement.
Because of the savings plans, the atmosphere in the MAN workforce was recently heated.
While predecessor Andreas Tostmann had brutally pushed through the tough savings rounds against the works councils, the newcomer is now increasingly trying to gain the trust of the workforce.
The manager repeatedly spoke of teams with whom he wanted to work together on the future of the commercial vehicle manufacturer.
MAN: Yield lag on Scania
MAN made an operating loss of 631 million euros in 2020.
But even in good years, the company lagged behind its sister company Scania in terms of returns.
Now the Bavarians want to quickly make up ground in terms of profitability.
While driver's cabs for all trucks have so far been built exclusively in Munich, part of this production will be relocated to Poland after the expansion of the Kraków plant.
A higher proportion of heavy trucks will also be built there in the medium term.
However, the Kraków plant must first start producing medium-sized trucks from the Steyr plant (Austria), which was sold to an Austrian investor.
MAN: The range of electric drives is to be doubled
In addition to the Munich plant, the MAN engine plant in Nuremberg is also to promote electromobility.
MAN relies on batteries for this.
In tests with city buses, ranges of more than 500 kilometers are already being achieved, and MAN wants to break the 1,000-kilometer mark for long-distance trucks in a few years.
In the eMobility Center in the Munich plant, which opened last summer, employees are prepared for the series production of electric vehicles.
The corresponding series production is also simulated and further developed there.
MAN: Increasing incoming orders
With sales of 66,800 trucks over six tons, MAN was above the level of 2020, when only 58,700 trucks could be delivered.
In the pre-Corona year 2019, however, sales were significantly higher at 82,700.
However, the order intake at MAN has increased recently, but ordered vehicles could not be delivered because there were no chips.
With a view to the bottlenecks in semiconductors, however, Vlaskamp was now cautiously optimistic.
Although the delivery problems continued to cause problems for the group, there are first signs of improvement.
"From March, the situation could slowly start to improve," said Vlaskamp.
"We are working hard on it." It is hoped that this trend will continue in the second half of the year.
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