In mid-September, the 1,000th MAN Lion’s City E rolled off the production line at the MAN plant in Starachowice, Poland.
MAN Focuses on Bus Electrification
The Lion’s City 12 E will take passengers in the greater Madrid area to their destinations safely, comfortably, and sustainably. The eBus was ordered by the transport company Auto Periferia S.A., a subsidiary of the Spanish Grupo Ruiz.
Across Europe, the market for electric buses grew by 45 per cent in the first half of 2023. A total of 2,567 battery-electric buses were registered during the period, according to Chatrou CME Solutions. This means that more than one in three new city buses (37.5 per cent) in Europe is now emission-free.
With 260 eBuses, MAN Truck & Bus ranks second in terms of new registrations in Europe. And MAN eBuses are also proving extremely popular in the German market: Of the 297 new electric buses registered in Germany in the first six months of this year, 63 were from MAN.
“By 2025, half of our new city buses will be electric, and just five years later, up to 90 per cent of our buses in Europe will be battery-powered. We also have our sights set on the electrification of intercity buses and coaches,” said Barbaros Oktay, Head of Bus at MAN Truck & Bus.
The high-voltage batteries for the electric buses and trucks will be mass-produced in Nuremberg from the beginning of 2025. MAN is investing around 100 million euros in this over the next five years. The aim is to expand production capacity to over 100,000 batteries per year. In this way, MAN is laying the foundations for the industrialisation of electric drives. This is because they could be used to equip around 15,000 to 25,000 eBuses or eTrucks – depending on the configuration.
In addition, the charging infrastructure is to be expanded as part of the Milence joint venture, which the Traton Group founded together with Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group: The plan is to set up at least 1,700 high-performance charging points at or near freeways and logistics hubs across Europe in the next few years.
