DB Schenker will be the first eTruck customer when it takes delivery of the battery powered MANs in 2024.
The first MAN eTrucks will be produced in small series in Munich in the first half of 2024.
Therefore, the truck manufacturer has been in talks with potential customers who will pilot the first run of vehicles.
Essentially, DB Schenker said it wanted to gain practical experience with the product as early as possible.
As a result, it will be setting up its own charging infrastructure and intelligent route planning.
In addition, the operator will use other digital services from MAN for example, eManager, ServiceCare and MAN Driver App.
As the first eTruck customer, DB Schenker will run volume semitrailer tractors, 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 3m.
In total, 10 MAN eTrucks that DB Schenker will receive in 2024 will be this configuration.
Meanwhile, the other electric trucks – arriving in 2025 and 2026 – are set to be ultra-tractor units and swap body trucks.
The production of the future eTrucks has been prepared at MAN since 2021 in the MAN eMobility Center.
Elementary components of the eTrucks will be produced in Nuremberg in the future.
MAN manufactures the high-voltage batteries at this site – currently still in small series production.
However, from the beginning of 2025 the battery packs will be produced in large series.
To this end, the company is investing around €100 million over the next five years at the production site for internal combustion engines.
Alexander Vlaskamp, MAN’s CEO, said the demand for the eTruck was “already enormous”.
“More and more of our customers are setting themselves extremely ambitious decarbonisation targets,” he added.