Commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus will invest around 100 million euros over the next five years at its facility in Nuremberg, Germany to develop production of high-voltage batteries for electric trucks and buses.

Initially, the batteries will be manufactured manually in a small series production phase that will last about two and a half years. By the end of 2024, the company aims to reach large-scale production. Production capacity will eventually be expanded to over 100,000 batteries per year.

MAN has had fully electric city buses and vans on the market for some time, and it put a small number of electric trucks on the road in 2019. The production of heavy e-trucks will begin at MAN’s plant in Munich at the beginning of 2024.

Depending on the range, MAN’s heavy electric truck uses up to six battery packs, giving it a range of 600 to 800 km. With its next generation of battery technology, MAN expects to achieve a range of up to 1,000 km, beginning around 2026.

MAN expects the total cost of ownership for an e-truck and a diesel-powered one to reach parity by 2025.

MAN is receiving support from the Bavarian State Government, which has pledged around 30 million euros in funding for research in battery assembly, cell chemistry, battery safety, and ultimately battery recycling.

“We are now starting to industrialize electromobility and continue on our path to climate-neutral mobility in commercial vehicles,” said Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus. “This paves the way for a commercial vehicle e-cluster ‘made in Bavaria,’ consisting of the production of e-trucks at MAN in Munich, battery production in Nuremberg, and research & development at both locations. With our investment decision, we are securing around 350 jobs at the Nuremberg site and hundreds if not thousands of jobs in Germany.”

Source: MAN Truck & Bus