E.ON and MAN Truck & Bus are jointly taking a decisive step forward in the expansion of the charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles.
As part of their new cooperation, the energy company and the commercial vehicle manufacturer will set up around 170 locations with around 400 stations for public charging of electric trucks across Europe.
Both firms are investing in the new stations, which will be built along the existing MAN service network and will also be able to charge commercial vehicles from other manufacturers.
Around 125 sites are planned in Germany alone.
This will create the largest nationwide public network for heavy commercial vehicles in the country to date.
Additional sites are being built in Austria, the UK, Denmark, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
“We are investing heavily to give the infrastructure for electric heavy goods transport a decisive boost and to set the course for sustainable logistics and green supply chains,” says Leonhard Birnbaum, CEO of E.ON.
“Nearly all major manufacturers are now focusing their development efforts on electric mobility. For the final breakthrough, we need a high-performance charging infrastructure that is designed on a European scale,” he adds.
Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus, indicates: “For the mobility transition to be successful, we need around 50,000 points for heavy commercial vehicles in Europe by 2030. As a manufacturer of electric trucks, we are of course making our contribution to this.”
And he continues: “I am delighted that E.ON is now a strong partner for the electrification of our service locations. We are thus laying another foundation stone for a public network. However, we still urgently need the support of policymakers to build this network on a large scale.”
The new sites will be located at strategically selected MAN service bases, primarily in industrial areas with high truck volumes or near motorways.
This means that public charging can be easily integrated into daily operations.
The layout of the sites is specially designed for charging electric commercial vehicles: This includes a drive-through facility through the station so that heavy-duty vehicles do not have to maneuver.
Wherever possible, the stations are installed in separate areas from the MAN service operations – with separate entrances and exits for the charging area – to ensure that they are accessible to the public, regardless of the make of vehicle.
During the day, drivers also benefit from the existing infrastructure, such as sanitary facilities and recreation rooms.
The sites will be built in a modular fashion.
As a first step, each site will be equipped with several 400 kilowatt stations.
This will allow an average electric truck to recharge for a range of up to 300 kilometers in about 45 minutes.
Later, the sites will be upgraded to the megawatt charging system (MCS).
The first 80 sites of the new network are to be built by the end of 2025.
Sukhjinder Singh, CEO of E.ON subsidiary E.ON Drive Infrastructure, states: “By combining MAN’s extensive service network with E.ON’s expertise in charging infrastructure, we are setting a new standard for electromobility in the commercial vehicle sector.”
Friedrich Baumann, Executive Board Member for Sales and Customer Solutions at MAN Truck & Bus SE, says: “With our new eTruck, we are launching series production this year of a vehicle that is suitable for almost all applications. The response has been very positive.”
“However, the right charging infrastructure will ultimately decide whether our customers actually switch from diesel to electric drive,” he adds.
The political goals for decarbonizing transport in Germany and Europe are clear: the German government wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy goods traffic in Germany by 55 percent by 2030 and to be climate neutral by 2045.
The EU recently agreed to reduce CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles by 65 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2040 compared to 2019 levels. Against this backdrop, the industry is investing heavily in vehicles and infrastructure.
The electrification of MAN’s product portfolio is gathering pace. The first production-ready electric truck with a daily range of up to 800 kilometers is in the starting blocks for 2024.
The range of the electric city bus will be extended by a product update next year.
MAN also plans to put its first test fleet of electric coaches on the road in 2025.
Meanwhile, as a full-service provider for electromobility and charging solutions, E.ON already offers access to a comprehensive network of more than 500,000 car points across Europe.
Companies and municipalities also benefit from customized charging infrastructure and electrification strategies for their fleets.
Grid expansion and digitalization are not only essential for the future supply of renewable energy, but also for an efficient infrastructure.
