MAN-Chef Alexander Vlaskamp über die Elektrifizierung des Lkw-Fernverkehrs

Yes, at MAN the tide turned much earlier, especially in buses. In 2011 we already put hybrid buses on the road and sold thousands across Europe. In 2021 we launched our full electric Lion's City in European cities, even winning Bus of the Year again. We already achieve 550 km in inner-city traffic. We modularized to have 18-meter, minibus, etc., addressing many needs.

We already see that almost half of tenders are for zero emission, so it's possible with battery-electric city buses. And now trucks are following at great pace. You announced a lot – behind us stands the long-distance model. But will urban distribution be electrified first? We see it both ways. Urban distribution operates in the last mile, and we have our eTruck distribution vehicles. But we see the need for greater CO2 reduction in transport, which is achieved by the number of kilometers driven – that means long-haul. That's why we are placing our electrified TGX series, covering heavy-duty 40-tonne transport across Europe and various applications like refrigerated distribution in the city center, which is quiet and climate-neutral. We start the ramp-up in 2024 because by then our production system and the megawatt charging standard will be ready, allowing the vehicle to be fully charged in 45 minutes and cover an 800 km daily tour.

Yes, we are initiating that. Our heavy truck line will be ready. We have partnerships with charging column manufacturers and we are building digital infrastructure to organize it within the normal logistics flow. We have also joined with our sister company Scania, and with Volvo Group and Daimler, to invest half a billion euros in a joint venture to set up charging stations along long-distance routes in Europe. That's the initial spark to attract further public and private investors. We need politics to provide investment funds and unbureaucratic approval procedures – we're not talking about innovation, we're talking about cables in the ground and transformers. That's an infrastructure task. It's no rocket science, we all have electricity at home. It just means rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.

We are technology-open. We have to see where things are going. But the other aspect is the total cost of ownership for our customers. The customer decides based on what is most effective to run their business and make money. Currently, we see that up to 2030-35 the battery-electric truck has the advantage over fuel cell or hydrogen combustion. Because there is no green hydrogen yet, it's hardly available. The largest electrolyzer being built in Bavaria provides capacity for just 65 trucks. And it competes with drinking water supply. So it must be produced de facto at sea. The conversion costs are critical. To illustrate: one wind turbine can power three times as many battery-electric trucks as fuel cell electric trucks. The inefficiency drives costs too high.

In May we announced an investment of 100 million euros in the first stage of a battery pack factory at the German industrial site in Nuremberg. There we will electrify our German setup in Nuremberg and Munich. We can produce up to 100,000 packs. We expect that by 2030 about 40-50% of our trucks will be electrified, and we will produce them mainly in Nuremberg and Munich. Regarding the last combustion engine: that depends on how and what you burn. We can use biofuels, like biogas instead of letting it escape from landfills, or synthetic fuels for heavy transport like 250-tonne loads where combustion is still necessary. I appeal to politics to leave freedom for our transporters to use these solutions when needed, for example to transport heavy transformers or wind turbines. Battery-electric or fuel cell will certainly be a topic. So no exit date for the combustion engine, but we are moving in the right direction with electromobility.