At MAN’s Nuremberg site, the Bavarian Prime Minister Dr Markus Söder symbolically handed over four subsidy notifications from the state government totalling almost €25 million to the company. The sum is part of a comprehensive technology promotion for the further development of high-voltage batteries for electric trucks and buses. This means that four of the five funding projects have been approved by the Bavarian State Government. The remaining sub-project is still in the application phase.
Dr Markus Söder, Bavarian Minister-President: “Good news for Nuremberg at today’s works meeting: MAN is moving into the future and doing so with strong support from the Free State of Bavaria. Promised – kept: We are investing 30 million euros in funding for the development and research of battery technology at MAN. This is the starting signal for a genuine battery technology gigafactory in Nuremberg. We are pursuing industrial policy in Bavaria by investing in research. MAN is one of the large and successful companies that have made Bavaria and Nuremberg economically large and strong. To make sure it stays that way, the future starts now.”
About a year ago, MAN Truck & Bus announced its decision to build commercial vehicle batteries in large-scale production at the Nuremberg site from 2025. The battery packs will be used to equip MAN’s electrically powered trucks and buses. While the electric MAN Lion’s City E city bus has already been in series production since 2020 and is experiencing strong demand, delivery of the new MAN eTrucks will begin in 2024. MAN will invest around €100 million for the development and production of the battery packs in Nuremberg. In addition, there will be investments in logistics, infrastructure, buildings and production facilities.
The decision in favour of Nuremberg as the location for MAN battery production is the result of close cooperation between representatives of employers and employees as well as politicians.
“MAN has a future – this is what Minister President Söder wrote on the first battery pack from Nuremberg a year ago. This also applies to our Nuremberg site, which we are transforming into an innovation and production centre for alternative drives. I am very pleased that we are receiving the necessary support on this path. I would like to thank the Bavarian State Government, the City of Nuremberg, but also the employees’ side and all other bodies involved for the pragmatic and constructive cooperation, for the atmosphere of trust in the discussions and the quick decision-making processes. Germany can have a future – if, as here, politics and business pursue a common goal,” says Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus SE.
“The transformation ahead of us is a major challenge that can only succeed if companies work together with works councils, trade unions and politicians. From this perspective, it is a good sign for the Nuremberg metropolitan region and the Free State of Bavaria that battery series production is being supported here at the MAN plant in Nuremberg,” says Markus Wansch, MAN Works Council Chairman Nuremberg and Deputy Chairman of the General and Group Works Council.
Production of the battery packs in pre-series and small series on a smaller scale has already started in 2021. From 2025, battery production will be gradually ramped up with a new production facility and in a new hall. The ground-breaking ceremony for this is scheduled for autumn 2023. Around 100,000 batteries per year can then be manufactured in large-scale production – it is the basis for the industrialisation of electric drives at MAN. Around 15,000 to 25,000 eTrucks could be equipped with them – depending on the configuration.
“If the ramp-up of eMobility in the truck sector takes place as we assume, the production capacity currently planned will no longer be sufficient at the end of this decade. In 2030, around 50 percent of all newly registered MAN trucks in Europe should be battery-electric – that would be around 40,000 units. That is why we are already starting to think about further expansion stages,” Vlaskamp notes.
