The upcoming MAN eTruck is still a year away from going into series production but there is already high demand for the battery electric model.

Among the early customers is German international logistics company DB Schenker, which plans to add 100 new MAN eTrucks to its fleet by 2026. The first vehicles will be delivered in the first half of 2024. 

“The demand in the market for this fully electric vehicle is already enormous,” says Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus.

“The topic is now really picking up speed, also because more and more of our customers are setting themselves extremely ambitious decarbonisation targets.

“This has a direct impact on the logistics chains. However, we will only be able to achieve a sustainable mobility turnaround in heavy goods transport with the appropriate political support. This concerns, among other things, the rapid development of the charging infrastructure and also the further design of the funding framework for the acquisition of electric trucks.”

In the first half of 2024, the first MAN eTrucks will be produced in a small series on the production line at the company’s headquarters in Munich. With the signing of the agreement, DB Schenker is the first pilot customer for these eTrucks. The company wants to gain practical experience with the product as early as possible. This also includes setting up its own charging infrastructure, intelligent route planning and other digital services from MAN Digital Solutions.

“We want to build up practical experience with e-trucks as early as possible,” says Cyrille Bonjean, Head of Land Transport at DB Schenker Europe.

“In this way, we can quickly create an offer for the economy to make supply chains more climate-friendly. That’s why it was important for us to get the first MAN eTrucks. This brings us another step closer to our goal of being net zero on the road in land transport by 2040.”

The first MAN eTrucks for DB Schenker will be so-called ultra-semitrailer tractors. The low semitrailer height of around 950mm makes it possible to transport electrically volume trailers with an internal height of 3 metres. 

Ten MAN eTrucks that DB Schenker will receive in 2024 will be ultra-tractor units. The other electric trucks to be delivered in 2025 and 2026 are planned as ultra-tractor units and swap body trucks.

Preparations for the production of the future MAN eTrucks began in 2021 at the MAN eMobility Centre.  Conventional diesel trucks and electric trucks will run off one assembly line during the ramp-up of electromobility. To this end, the workflows and process steps of planners, designers and start-up experts are mapped with pinpoint accuracy and any necessary adjustments are taken up immediately by the vehicle developers.

MAN manufactures the high-voltage batteries at its Nuremberg plant - currently still in small series production, but from the beginning of 2025 the battery packs will be produced in large series.

To this end, the company is investing around Euro 100million over the next five years at the Nuremberg plant which has traditionally manufactured internal combustion engines. 

MAN is also receiving support from the Bavarian state government, with a pledge to contribute about Euro30 million to energy research and technology funding for the period 2023 to 2027.