The moves to electrify the world’s trucks is continuing on many fronts with barely a day going by without another statement or story dropping into the inbox with another example of an electric fleet being handed over or a new electric model being launched.
Such was the case today with MAN announcing it has handed over over fully electric trucks to nine partner companies from the Austrian Council for Sustainable Logistics (CNL) in Europe.
The company says the test vehicles, based on MAN TGMs, are designed specifically for each customer and have been prepared for authentic practical testing. During the test drives, which will last for several months, the participating companies will use the vehicles in regular logistics operations.
MAN will incorporate the experience gained together with the CNL’s partner companies into the continuing mass development of its electric trucks.
Joachim Drees, chairman of the Executive Board of Man Truck & Bus AG, and his board colleague Dr. Ulrich Dilling, responsible for production and logistics, handed over the first electric trucks of the type MAN eTGM at the Steyr production site at nine member companies of the Austrian Council for Sustainable Logistics (CNL).
This also represented the starting point for practical tests, which will begin with immediate effect and under authentic conditions in day-to-day logistics and transport activities at CNL member companies Gebrüder Weiss, HOFER, Magna Steyr, METRO, Quehenberger Logistics, REWE, Schachinger Logistik, SPAR and Stieglbrauerei.
In the coming months, the companies will thoroughly test the vehicles under authentic conditions in their specific logistic and transport everyday life.
The official hand-over sees MAN Truck & Bus reach another milestone on the road to electrified urban distribution transport – a mission in which zero-emissions and low levels of noise pollution play an increasingly important role.
The CNL members’ vehicle tests in routine logistics services underscore MAN’s approach of working together with customers and taking their practical experience on board to develop sustainable logistics solutions.
During the hand-over ceremony, which was held right in the midst of the action at the Steyr plant’s electric truck production facilities, Joachim Drees was evidently impressed by the joint project with the CNL, stating: “The time has come, the first MAN electric trucks are on the road – in everyday use by our customers. From now on, they deliver, for example, drinks, food, or vehicle parts – local emissions-free and almost silent. The handover of the first eTrucks is not only a special moment for the cooperation project with the CNL, but also for the 260-year company history of MAN.”
From the Council for Sustainable Logistics’ point of view, its creator and spokesman Max Schachinger expressed praise for the project: “We know and experience directly the development of climate and environment and we want all the more livable cities. Beyond the steps of each individual, we connect to an even greater whole and put the first E-trucks together with MAN in action: The end of the fossil age is ushered in and the future of sustainable mobility begins today.”
The CNL is a unique initiative in European terms: Eighteen of Austria’s largest retail, logistics and manufacturing firms have united to take steps forward in the area of sustainable logistics. The CNL is affiliated with the Centre for Global Change and Sustainability at Vienna University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences.
The field tests are carried out in the “Megawatt” project and supported by the Austrian Federal Government’s Climate and Energy Fund as part of its “Lighthouses of Electric Mobility” program with 3,012,648 euros.
