E.On and MAN Truck & Bus are joining forces to set up public charging sites for electric trucks across Europe and the UK. They are planning to install around 400 stations at 170 locations along the existing MAN service network. The chargers will be able to charge commercial vehicles from other manufacturers. The companies say that the planned 125. Stations in Germany will create the largest nationwide public charging network for heavy commercial vehicles in the country to date. As well as the UK, other sites are being built in Austria, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Czechia and Hungary.
Leonhard Birnbaum, chief executuve of E.On, said, “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. 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. We are delighted to be leading the way together with MAN.”
Alexander Vlaskamp, chief executive of MAN Truck & Bus, added: “For the mobility transition to be successful, we need around 50,000 charging points for heavy commercial vehicles in Europe by 2030. As a manufacturer of electric trucks, we are of course making our contribution to this. I am delighted that E.ON is now a strong partner for the electrification of our service locations.” He added, “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. The design for commercial vehicles includes ‘drive-through’, so that trucks and buses do not have to maneuver. Drivers may also benefit from the existing infrastructure, such as sanitary facilities and recreation rooms.
As a first step, each site will be equipped with several 400 kilowatt charging stations. This will allow an average electric truck to recharge for a range of up to 300km in about 45 minutes. Later, the sites will be upgraded to the MCS megawatt charging system.
MAN said its first production-ready electric truck with a daily range of up to 800km is in the starting blocks for 2024. It plans to put its first test fleet of electric coaches on the road in 2025.