Production of the Electric Lions

Many of you have already visited the plant in Munich and obtained insights into how a MAN truck is produced. The electric Lion is now a new addition.

The starting pistol has been fired. The MAN eTruck has been rolling off the assembly line in the F1-F3 assembly hall at the MAN site in Munich since September. After a successful test run in July, in which three trucks were produced, the small-series vehicles are now being produced in series production. “Normally, trucks with combustion engines and electric drives run on two lines. We produce both on the same line. This gives us a market advantage in series production of eTrucks,” says Dr. Peter Demmel, Head of Assembly in Munich.

Production takes place with cycle times of eight minutes for both trucks with combustion engine and electric motor. The focus for eTrucks is on integration of the media module and installation of the high-voltage batteries and electric motors. In parallel to the ramp-up of the number of units, an area in the hall is equipped so that the power packs, side batteries and charging units can be pre-assembled there. The battery packs come from the parallel ramp-up of battery production at the MAN Nuremberg plant.

Mixed production only works when there are qualified employees on the line

The eTruck differs from a diesel truck in around 3,500 parts and therefore required adjustments to the assembly sequences. New equipment was purchased, ranging from nutrunners and lifting equipment to augmented-reality solutions for the new media module pre-assembly.

MAN therefore undertook intensive preparations for this in the eMobility Centre. After the concept phase, teams from the project, series planning, production and testing areas and the MAN Academy worked together intensively for more than three years to prepare production for the upcoming challenges. From 2021 onwards, the necessary processes for later series production were developed directly during the production of the first prototype vehicles in the eMobility Centre.

Martin Liebl was involved from the outset, working on how to install the power packs in the installation space of the gearbox and combustion engine. Later on, he accompanied the production of the prototypes and precursors, which were built by a team consisting of the eMobility Centre team and colleagues from the series production line. “For the employees, it was a great benefit to get to know the overall production process better in the laboratory workshop. If you know how the whole thing works and what contribution you make yourself, you identify even more with the product,” says Liebl.

The eTruck shows the way into the future

For Oberhauser (MAN employee and electrician), it feels good to be involved in the production of the new eTruck. “The vehicle production run before the summer break received a very positive response from the employees on the assembly line. It’s a big challenge, but I’m looking positively into the future.” Assembly manager Demmel also sees advantages in mixed production in particular: “We are producing the MAN product of the future here. Our mixed production gives us great flexibility – because we can react relatively spontaneously to changes in sales. We have created the prerequisites so that up to 100 units can leave the line every day. Regardless of whether these are made up of 100 eTrucks or just 25.”