“MAN’s Electric Semi-Trailer Tractor Ready for High-Power Charging Stations Across Europe”

While a number of electric truck manufacturers, such as Scania and Volvo, focus on smaller vehicles with electric drive or on such uses that do not drive large portions of kilometers, the German brand MAN starts straight away with the king – with the semi-trailer tractor. After winter testing, she started driving it on German public roads.

“In 2030, up to 50% of the vehicles we sell in Europe will be electric trucks. But of course it is important that we have the right infrastructure for this,” says Alexander Vlaskamp, ​​Chairman of the MAN Board of Directors.

“We urgently need at least 50,000 high-power, megawatt charging stations across Europe,” he adds. Although such are not yet available, the electric MAN is ready for such powerful charging.

The company is part of a project to build chargers along the A2 highway between Berlin and the Ruhr, which will be powerful enough to recharge the truck’s batteries during the forty-five-minute mandatory stop. “Infrastructure is alpha and omega and we need an overall concept, a common language with the energy industry and the government about planning,” Vlaskamp adds.

The semi-trailer tractor is not the only variant of the introduced car that the company is planning. It will also offer chassis adapted for conversion into food tankers or garbage trucks.

Despite the introduction in April, mass production of the machine is not that close. It is to start in 2024 at the Munich plant, and the electric trucks are to roll off the same production line where the conventional diesel ones are made. Already in January, the company announced that it had sold ten electric tractors to the logistics company DB Schenker.