Not the first manufacturer to undertake a grand tour for their electrically owered trucks, MAN have revealed their Polarexpress initiative; a battery-powered eTGX semitrailer truck, has set off on a 3000 kilometre tour from the Arctic Circle to Munich.
It is not only demonstrating its impressive range, even in icy temperatures. At the same time, it proves that fully electric trans-European long-distance lorry transport with exclusive use of public charging infrastructure is already possible today.
‘With this tour, we want to show once again that with the new MAN eTruck, the drive transition in international long-distance transport is already possible today and can be implemented in practice. We offer numerous helpful solutions around the eTruck, such as MAN Charge&Go, which make it easier for our customers to switch from diesel to electric. And the fact that we can already drive purely electrically from the Arctic Circle to Munich and rely exclusively on publicly accessible charging infrastructure is a positive sign. However, there is still a lot to be done here throughout Europe! In order to make a comprehensive drive turnaround in long-distance transport with millions of trucks a reality, major efforts and investments in the expansion of the necessary high-performance charging infrastructure are still needed,’ says Friedrich Baumann, Executive Board Member for Sales & Customer Solutions at MAN Truck & Bus.
The tour details
The 3000-kilometre tour comprises a total of seven stages: from the Arctic Circle along the Swedish east coast to Stockholm, from there through the interior of the country to Malmö in southern Sweden, on to Copenhagen and through Denmark to Hamburg and from there via Schweinfurt once through Germany to the destination in Munich.
On average, the MAN eTGX covers between 400 and 600 kilometres a day, depending on the route conditions and available charging infrastructure. It will also make a longer stop at the MAN site in Copenhagen to visit the service and sales team there.