MAN Truck & Bus wants to accelerate the transformation to electric commercial vehicles and has unveiled a near-production prototype of its new electric truck. A fuel cell truck is also to be developed.
Prototype of the new electric truck from MAN
MAN Truck & Bus
MAN Truck & Bus has announced that it will bring forward the start of heavy-duty e-truck production in Munich (Germany). This is now to take place in early 2024 instead of 2025 with the delivery of an initial 200 units. The battery-electric trucks will roll off the production line at MAN’s main e-mobility plant in Munich. Accompanying this, eMobility solutions will prepare customers for vehicle use and support them in switching to electric drives. The commercial vehicle manufacturer has also unveiled a near-production electric truck. The prototype based on the new MAN truck generation also forms the basis for a heavy-duty fuel cell truck, even though the focus is on battery-electric trucks.
MAN is also developing a fuel cell truck in the project Bayernflotte together with industry partners Bosch, Faurecia and ZF, which will be delivered to five customers in mid-2024. The companies BayWa, DB Schenker, Gress Spedition, Rhenus Logistics and Spedition Dettendorfer will test the fuel cell trucks in real-world use for one year. "Only when sufficient green hydrogen and also the corresponding infrastructure is available well after 2030 do we also expect H2 trucks to be used 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,"says Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus. The state of Bavaria is funding the Bayernflotte research project as part of its own hydrogen strategy.