With the topping-out ceremony for the future production hall of the newly developed 13-litre diesel engine, the MAN plant in Nuremberg has now reached another important milestone in its transformation. The ceremony, which was attended among others by Nuremberg’s mayor Marcus König, MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp and site manager Ulrich Zimmer, brings to an end the 15-month construction phase of a truly large-scale project.
With an investment volume of around € 170 million, the new hall is one of the most extensive construction projects at MAN’s Nuremberg site. More than 160 highly qualified jobs will be created on approximately 23,000 m2. Here employees will produce the core components of the TRATON GROUP’s new 13-litre diesel unit, that will be jointly used by all brands, in three-shift operation in a state-of-the-art manufacturing environment. The buildings and the installed systems technology are designed according to the latest energy efficiency findings. Ergonomics and accessibility as well as attractively designed common rooms create an attractive and sustainable working environment.
“We are making history this year. In the group, we have decided to rely on a common construction kit in the future. And today we are celebrating the topping-out ceremony – for the hall in which engines of the new, joint engine generation will be manufactured soon. Thus, we are leading the TRATON GROUP and its brands into a new era. In the next few years, the engine will also be installed at MAN. This is expected to be the last completely newly developed engine of the group that is an internal combustion engine. It will enrich our product world for many years to come. It will also inspire our customers at MAN“, explains Christian Levin, Chairman of the Board of TRATON SE.
Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus SE, adds: “We are pursuing a clear zero-emissions strategy at MAN Truck & Bus. We assume, that about 50 percent of the vehicles we deliver to customers will have have locally emission-free drive systems by 2030. In some markets outside Europe or for applications such as off-road, diesel engines will continue to play an important role in the transition period to locally emission-free freight transport. We are taking this development into account with this investment.“
“The new hall for the production of the new, joint TRATON GROUP diesel engine is a clear commitment to the Nuremberg location. We are investing 170 million euros in our traditional engine plant and creating 160 jobs. This is just as strong a signal as the establishment of large-scale production for the batteries of our electric trucks and buses in Nuremberg and represents the transformation that we are actively shaping here at the site,” says Ulrich Zimmer, site manager of MAN Truck & Bus SE in Nuremberg.
From 2024, the TRATON GROUP’s new, joint 13-litre engine is to be manufactured at the Nuremberg plant for MAN requirements – around the same time as the start of series production of MAN’s long-haul electric trucks at the Munich plant. Their electric drive units will also come from the Nuremberg plant. The opening of the high-voltage battery pack production took place last year. In the course of the technological transformation both, conventional and electrified drive systems will run side by side off the production line in Munich in the future. Therefore, Nuremberg supplies central components for both types of drive.
The new diesel engine, developed in close cooperation between the Group brands, bridges the gap between the internal combustion engine and the electrified drives of the future. With its significantly lower fuel consumption compared to the predecessor engine, the new unit sets new standards.
SOURCE: MAN Truck & Bus
