MAN boss promises: "E-truck finally suitable for long-distance traffic"

Created: 06/30/2022Updated: 06/30/2022 10:12 am

By: Andreas Hoess

The commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN is building a new battery factory.

In an interview, boss Alexander Vlaskamp reveals details about the new factory and electric trucks.

Nuremberg – The commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN is building a new battery factory for electric trucks in Nuremberg for almost 100 million euros.

Because the Free State is funding the project, Prime Minister Markus Söder was also there when the plans were presented.

The batteries will be manufactured manually over the next two and a half years and are to be mass-produced from 2025.

We spoke to MAN boss Alexander Vlaskamp about the factory and the topic of e-mobility.

Mr. Vlaskamp, ​​why did you choose Nuremberg as your location and not, for example, the plants in Poland, South Africa or Turkey?

In Nuremberg we have been optimizing our engines for decades and driving innovation topics such as electrification.

We have a competent and motivated team here.

In order to carry out long-term research in the field of electromobility, the state government has also promised 30 million euros in funding.

In addition, together with the employee representatives, we have developed a concept of how we can compensate for wage cost disadvantages.

What does that look like exactly?

We ask for your understanding that we do not want to give any details.

The plant in Nuremberg has 3500 employees, battery production is only supposed to secure 350 jobs.

What about the rest?

Production is to be ramped up by 2030, from which point a capacity of around 100,000 batteries per year is planned.

In total, we will then probably need more employees than 350. Of course, battery production in Nuremberg also has positive effects on other areas at the site - for example in research and development or in administration.

In the medium term, we will think about the extent to which we are involved in the value chain with batteries.

This is the essential lever for more job security in the future.

So no jobs will be cut?

We expect that with the ramp-up of e-mobility we will partially compensate for the expected medium-term decline in combustion engines and that the normal employee fluctuation along the demographic curve will suffice for the personnel realignment of the location.

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That sounds vague.

I say “medium term” because we will be building diesel engines in Nuremberg for a long time to come.

We are currently investing 170 million euros at the site for our future joint engine platform of the Traton Group, to which we belong together with Scania.

MAN boss Alexander Vlaskamp: "This will finally make the e-truck suitable for long-distance transport"

What role will the plants in Munich and Nuremberg play in the future?

With this decision, we are creating an e-mobility cluster for commercial vehicles in southern Germany.

The battery cells for this come from a supplier in Erfurt.

In Nuremberg they are brought together in so-called packs.

The finished packs are assembled in the trucks on the assembly line in our main plant in Munich.

So we have short transport routes and keep the CO2 footprint small.

What ranges do the packages allow?

Our electric trucks will be equipped with six such battery packs for most applications.

They will initially cover 600 to 800 kilometers and from 2026 up to 1000 kilometers with improved battery technology.

This finally makes the e-truck suitable for long-distance transport.

They rely exclusively on battery vehicles, Daimler Trucks also on hydrogen.

Why?

So far, hydrogen has been produced from natural gas and is therefore not green.

In addition, a kilo costs twelve euros.

Hydrogen trucks only become competitive in price compared to diesel or electric trucks at three to four euros.

Hydrogen also has disadvantages when it comes to energy efficiency.

An e-truck is twice as expensive as a diesel.

When does that pay off?

That pays off when the transport industry is included in emissions trading, which will happen with the EU climate package.

It will make diesel trucks more expensive to use because you pay a CO2 surcharge compared to an electric truck.

You have to know that a truck often runs 1.5 million kilometers.

Despite the higher purchase price, e-trucks then have a cost advantage thanks to the lower operating costs.

MAN project envisages 1700 charging stations by 2027

The charging infrastructure has so far been a stumbling block for e-mobility - especially in the transport industry.

They want to build around 1,700 charging stations by 2027.

Is the project running?

For the project, we are working with Scania under the umbrella of the Traton Group, as well as with Volvo and Daimler.

Together we want to invest 500 million euros.

At the moment we are still waiting for the approval of the EU competition authorities.

However, we are very confident that we can start this summer and that the first charging station will be in place in one to two years.

How many electric vehicles do you want to sell in 2030?

When it comes to city buses, we estimate that by 2030 we will be selling almost exclusively electric vehicles in Europe, and about half of the touring coaches will be electric.

And for trucks in Europe, we expect around 60 percent to be electric in distribution traffic and 30 to 40 percent in long-distance traffic.

The bottom line is that around 50 percent would be electric vehicles.

That fits in with the goals of Transport Minister Volker Wissing, who wants to electrify around a third of freight transport by 2030.

can he do it

We have the vehicles and services, we provide the charging station technology and we help with the construction of charging stations.

But we need the grid and electricity.

For e-mobility, the power grid along the main traffic routes must be massively expanded, as must of course the generation of electricity and the proportion of renewable energies.

What do you specifically demand from politicians?

The federal government and the EU states must determine the number of megawatt charging stations for trucks that they believe are needed and also state their support for this.

Once that is clear, the energy industry can also adapt to it.

We welcome the fact that the Minister of Transport has ambitious goals.

But he should also set clear milestones on how he wants to get there.

We either already have the necessary products for this or will be launching them on the market shortly.

Now our customers still need the necessary infrastructure to have planning security.

Climate-neutral restructuring of the economy and more independence from difficult trading partners - these are the two mega-topics that Economics Minister Habeck is concerned about.

A new battery factory in northern Germany is therefore a "flagship project" for him.