From acquiring the first electric truck to managing an integrated fleet mix – switching to alternative drive options raises a lot of questions. The 360° consultancy services from MAN Transport Solutions provide you with reliable answers.
Our MAN team of experts fully supports you and clarifies all relevant issues with you down to the last detail.
Naturally, transition to electric drives is only expedient if the range and transport capacity is sufficient. Especially when used in inner cities, many vehicles do not travel more than 80 to 120 kilometres. If the average distance travelled per day is within this range, electromobility is a real option. However, you will also need to take other factors into account to make reliable statements on possible applications and economy.
For your organisation, the transition to electromobility is more than just the replacement of one or more of your vehicles. It represents your introduction to the mobility of the future, with all the associated benefits. But “electric” also brings a series of changes into your organisation: from journey planning and daily charging right up to driving style and workshop equipment. Hence it is important that your employees and your service workshop are well prepared for it.
In collaboration with the MAN Academy, we provide training for your employees so that they can make optimal use of your electric vehicles. We inform you of possible risks and how to handle the electric vehicles properly in the event of an accident or a defect. And we also support your service workshops as expert partners, handling all questions related to working on electric vehicles.
Whether you can achieve savings by switching to electric mobility as opposed to a conventionally-powered vehicle largely depends on the design of the energy supply. We test all possible means of cost optimisation for you. These include, for example, how you can exploit low-cost electricity purchasing times and avoid load peaks with staggered charging. Or how you can optimise power procurement costs by using and storing self-generated energy e.g. for charging the vehicle batteries.
The vehicle battery is another key component of electromobility. Its condition and its performance are decisive with respect to cost-efficient operation of electrified fleets.
It cannot be avoided that batteries lose capacity and performance with increasing age. However, factors such as usage behaviour, maintenance and charging frequency have a considerable influence on how quickly and to what degree the battery output is reduced. Optimised battery management is therefore an integral part of the concepts for your transition to electromobility.
Equipped with the right charging technology, your business premises will be the optimal base for your electric vehicles: Charging the batteries after the end of a shift ensures a range of up to 200 km (according to the NEDC) on the following day. For example, your MAN eTGM could manage additional routes on the same day if you use a quick-charging station during the lunch break. The CCS Combined Charging System with up to 150 kW charging current allows complete charging of the battery within a maximum of two hours.
The MAN eTGM supplies superstructures such as roll-off tippers, refrigeration containers or waste compactors with electric energy directly from the vehicle batteries. Hence operation of auxiliary consumers unavoidably leads to a reduction in the range of your electric vehicle. How strong this effect is depends on the type of superstructure and also on the intensity of its use. Hence we perform a detailed analysis of the power consumption of the auxiliary consumers for use of the vehicles in your organisation. The knowledge gained flows directly into the range calculation and journey optimisation.
Above all, electric trucks can fully demonstrate their strengths in an urban environment: The actual average speeds in typical city traffic range around 16-20 km/h. And speed limits on most journeys are 50-60 km/h. In these speed ranges, electric drive concepts work in a particularly energy-efficient manner. Furthermore, unlike travelling with an internal combustion engine, stop & go traffic is no longer a burden on your energy balance. On the contrary: Using recuperation, the MAN eTGM delivers electrical energy back to the battery each time the brakes are applied.
Anticipatory driving saves energy. This applies to any vehicle. But with an electric drive, a well-trained driver can make considerable additional gains in range. Gentle acceleration and targeted use of recuperation considerably reduce energy consumption.
The weight of the load and the topographic profile of the route have a relatively small influence on the range of your electric vehicle. Operation of the heating and high speeds have a much greater influence. Nevertheless, a detailed analysis of your route network and your load requirements are important. They provide important information for optimisation of routes and vehicle rotations.
An electric drive produces much less waste heat than a combustion engine. For this reason, the MAN eTGM uses a purely electrical heating and air conditioning system. It works so efficiently that its power consumption hardly affects the range of your electric vehicle.