Alexander Vlaskamp0:01
Thank you very much, Young, and distinguished guests, customers, and representatives. It's a pleasure to be here in South Africa representing MAN Truck & Bus, the inventor of the diesel engine. I was recently in Augsburg, where our founder invented the diesel engine back in 1897. How fantastic to stand here now and see the success of that engine, which is also very environmentally friendly but is being replaced by even more environmentally friendly means of transport—electrified transport. We start with the most important thing: transporting our fellow people around the world. It's great to announce here today the launch of our Lion's Explorer to the South African market. It's great to be here with you in this wonderful location with beautiful scenery and beautiful people who will be transported with beautiful buses. It's great to hand over these buses, and I want to thank Mr. Buyer and Mr. Niedling, our colleagues from Golden Arrow Bus Services, for stepping jointly in this important step to drive the road to zero-emission transport. MAN is part of the Traton truck and bus Group, part of the Volkswagen group, a group of 40 billion euros turnover. We are present on all continents with four brands: MAN, Scania, Volkswagen Truck and Bus, and International in North America. We are leading the global sustainability movement for commercial vehicles, transporting people and goods. This year, MAN will do approximately 14 billion euros turnover, with 33,000 employees globally, including colleagues in various locations in South Africa, and with our service operations and dealerships, another 30,000 people working to ensure 24/7 transport. We have production sites in Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, and Turkey. Our product portfolio ranges from small vans of 3.5 to 5.5 tons up to special heavy vehicles up to 250 tons for wind farms and electric power. We have buses from city to intercity coaches under our MAN and Neoplan brands. We do this with diesel engines that can use biodiesel, blends, and HVO, as well as gas engines for biogas or fossil gas. We are electrifying: we are currently second in the European city bus market, and now we make the step to Africa, with South Africa as the first market. Not only delivering products, but also services with our vast network. Expectation is to operate these vehicles 18 hours a day over their lifetime. The MAN group has produced nearly 6 million trucks and 700,000 buses globally, many still in operation. In Europe, 13.7 billion tons of freight are moved, and 11.8 billion passengers travel annually by bus and coach. These markets are growing, and we want to be part of that while mitigating climate change. We are committed to CO2 neutrality, aligning with the Paris Agreement. Our group has committed to science-based targets set by a UN team, cutting emissions both upstream and downstream. For Europe, we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent versus our 2019 fleet. We believe electrification is the prime path. We will also explore hydrogen for niche use cases, but hydrogen requires green electricity and has energy losses, making battery electric more economical for most vehicles. Our roadmap includes electrifying buses—Barb will detail that—and we are starting pre-series production of e-trucks in 2024 with 200 units. Next month we start sales of our electric truck generation; we already have 500 pre-orders. Production ramps up to 1,500 e-trucks by 2025. We expect 40 to 50 percent of our European truck production to be electrified by 2030. Many markets globally are calling for this, possibly leapfrogging from Euro 3 or Euro 5 to electric, especially for city and suburban bus operations. For trucks, we are ready from next year. For our bus portfolio, we are setting the pace with the MAN Lion's City range, using a modular approach for customization. We have been pioneering for eight years with eTGE vans and e-buses. Since 2012 we have had hybrid buses. The European electric city bus market grew 45% in 2023, and by 2025 half of the market will be electric, reaching 90-100% by 2030. We are now number two in market share due to customization. Today we take the next step: handing over the Lion's Explorer, a milestone for free mobility in Africa. We are proud to be electrifying Africa jointly with our customers. I am proud of our team in South Africa—we are market leader in the bus business with just over 45% market share by end of 2022. We operate our own bus body plant in Olifantsfontein, contributing to the African economy. We are partnering with Golden Arrow to ensure we electrify Africa the right way. The aim is to start the journey converting diesel buses to electric. Thank you very much, and I hand over to all the details to Bubbles.
