TRATON : makes important strategic progress in the first half of 2022, performing well in an extremely difficult environment

Christian Levin, CEO of the TRATON GROUP: "We are dealing with a lot of major challenges: although the availability of semiconductors and other key components is slowly improving, it has not yet returned to normal. At the same time, raw materials and energy are becoming more expensive and logistics resources are tight. Nevertheless, our Group is becoming more and more adept at handling this situation - our hard work to get there is paying off. And even in times of economic difficulty, we are not losing sight of what matters to us: helping to transform our industry into a more sustainable future. The progress of the TRATON GROUP in this field during the first half of the year has been truly remarkable. Our joint venture for commercial vehicle fast charging in Europe is getting underway, Scania has presented its first electric truck for regional long-haul operations, and production of e-trucks at MAN is set to start earlier than originally planned. Volkswagen Truck & Bus already has a successful electric vehicle on the market with its e-Delivery truck, while Navistar's electric school bus from the CE Series is showing what sustainable and safe mobility looks like in everyday life."

Battery electric commercial vehicles cannot become the solution of choice for long-haul transportation and do so quickly, unless fast-charging infrastructure is established as soon as possible. The TRATON GROUP recently reached a milestone in this area with the foundation of the "Commercial Vehicle Charging Europe" joint venture together with Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group. Right now, there are hardly any charging points for electric heavy-duty trucks or buses that can be accessed by the public. The joint venture intends to establish and run at least 1,700 green energy charging points in Europe over the next five years.

The TRATON GROUP is systematically aligning its brands' portfolio to focus on battery electric vehicles. In light of this, MAN is also shifting up a gear in the expansion of its own portfolio. Production of heavy-duty e-trucks in Munich is now set to start at the beginning of 2024, almost a year earlier than originally planned. In the first half of the year MAN also presented a close-to-production prototype of its new electric truck in Nuremberg for the first time.

Moreover, the TRATON GROUP brands took important steps to pave the way for battery technology in the first six months of the year. Scania has opened a battery laboratory, where up to 170 tests can be performed simultaneously for battery cells, modules, and packs. Starting in early 2025, MAN will manufacture high-voltage batteries for e-trucks and buses in large series at its site in Nuremberg. The company is investing around €100 million over the next five years to make this a reality and plans to expand its production capacity to more than 100,000 batteries per year.