A Transformation Milestone

MAN is continuing its consistent path towards electromobility. The foundation of any successful electric truck or eBus is high-performance high-voltage batteries that guarantee long range and long life. From April 2025, they will be produced on an industrial scale in Nuremberg using state-of-the-art production methods – making MAN the first commercial vehicle manufacturer in Germany to have its own battery production facility. The project reached a key milestone at the end of November: after just a year of construction, MAN celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the new production building. The event took place just a few weeks after the first MAN eTrucks were delivered to a client.

MAN has invested around 100 million euros in the new building in Nuremberg – including all the expenses for logistics, infrastructure, buildings and production facilities. At more than 35 metres high, the new building is the tallest production building on the site. The 17,000 m2 space is home to more than 50 manual and automated assembly stations and seven quality assurance test rigs. The modules produced are inserted into battery layers on the production line. These layers are stacked on top of each other, assembled into battery packs and then tested thoroughly.

Up to 100,000 batteries per year

The construction of the first production facilities has already begun. Once work is completed in April, the first stage will be able to produce up to 50,000 batteries per year. Depending on market trends, this capacity is set to rise to up to 100,000 high-voltage batteries by 2030. The new battery production facility is creating more than 300 new, secure jobs.

Attentive listener: Nuremberg's Lord Mayor Marcus König (centre) did not want to miss the topping-out ceremony.

“The drive technology of the future is being built in Nuremberg. We’re not just developing batteries here, we’ll be producing them on a large scale, using the latest technologies, in just a few months,” explained MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp during the celebration, which was attended by VIPs including Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, Nuremberg mayor Marcus König, and Markus Wansch, works council chair at MAN’s Nuremberg site. “The topping-out ceremony is an important milestone for our company on the road to the big transformation towards electromobility. What’s more, it is a clear endorsement of Bavaria and Germany as business locations from MAN. This has all been made possible by the close alliance between the company, our works council and the Bavarian government.”

Maximum precision and quality in production

MAN has received support from the Bavarian state government for the expansion of series production of batteries in Nuremberg, with backing for battery technology research and development to the tune of around 30 million euros. Among other things, this has made the integration of innovative laser welding cells possible in the Nuremberg production process. Laser welding is the most innovative, most efficient and neatest manufacturing technology used in the assembly of battery modules. Individual battery cells are joined together electrically with maximum precision and quality, using a powerful eight-kilowatt disc laser, robot-controlled optics and superfine sensors. MAN is working with the Technical University of Munich to develop this technology, which will be used in future battery generations.

Full of energy: Prime Minister Markus Söder, MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp and Michael Kobriger, MAN Board Member for Production and Logistics (from left to right), frame a truck battery.

“For our site, getting into electromobility is a decisive step into the future,” said Ingo Essel, head of MAN’s Nuremberg site. “We have decades of expertise in the development and production of engines, and now we’ve also set the best conditions for establishing ourselves as a centre of competence for alternative drive technologies.”

The subject of electromobility is nothing new for the Nuremberg site though. Battery packs for MAN’s fully electric vehicles are already manufactured here in small production runs. As large-scale production begins, MAN will gradually refit the small-scale production area for the development of the next generation of batteries and battery recycling.