Volkswagen Owned MAN To Go Fully Electric 2024 Onwards

Volkswagen owned MAN which makes trucks and buses has aligned itself with the strategy of the entire group announcing a transition from diesel-powered vehicles to all-electric power trains starting as soon as 2024. Man already has some electric busses and vans in its portfolio but now it is fully throwing the diesel engine under the bus for the lack of a better word.  Man was founded in the 1960s in Germany and is a subsidiary of Traton which was formerly known as Volkswagen Truck and Bus AG. Volkswagen is a majority shareholder in Man after it invested $29.5 billion in the company in the last couple of years. 

Man started making electric versions of existing commercial vehicles and started incorporating them in its fleet in 2020. Now, it has plans for an electric heavy truck for 2024 something which has been outlined by its CEO Dr Andreas Tostmann. Tostmann believes that by the end of 2023 Man's employees will be qualified to build electric trucks. 

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Man has plans of developing an electric truck that's capable of 500 kilometres of range on a single charge but from a longer-term perspective, there are plans for trucks that will have upwards of 700 kilometres of range and even some that could achieve 1000 kilometres on a single charge. 

Man is a subsidiary of the VW Group

"Cost parity with diesel can be achieved more quickly with an electric drive than with a fuel cell," said Tostmann stating that Man preferred the electric powertrain to replace diesel over other forms of clean energy like hydrogen. Tostmann assumes that 9 out of 10 busses will be based on electric powertrains in Europe by 2030. 

Man will be eliminating 3,500 jobs and will be selling one of its truck plants to make this transition. It has been struggling for the last couple of years and has received minimal investment from the Volkswagen Group to keep it afloat. 

Volkswagen is of course the boldest of all mainstream automotive groups having committed upwards of $80 billion towards electric cars. In the US, it has built the Electrify America charging network. It has invested in solid-state battery maker QuantumScape, and also invested in autonomous car startup Argo AI. Its subsidiaries Audi and Porsche have already started releasing high-performance electric cars while its flagship VW brand has the ID range of electric cars.