MAN builds battery factory in Nuremberg

From the beginning of 2025, MAN Truck & Bus will manufacture high-voltage batteries for electric trucks and buses in large-scale production at its Nuremberg site.

To this end, the company will invest around €100 million over the next five years at the tradition-rich production site for combustion engines. Production capacities will be expanded to over 100,000 batteries per year. The investments in the development of battery production will secure 350 jobs with a promising future.

This important investment decision was made in close cooperation between the company and the employee representatives and with the active support of Bavarian politicians. The decision gives Nuremberg’s traditional location a clear perspective for the future.

Initially, the batteries, which along with the engines form the heart of electric commercial vehicle drives, will be manufactured manually at the MAN plant in Nuremberg in a small series production for about two and a half years.

Construction of large-scale production is scheduled to start in mid-2023 and to be completed by the end of 2024. MAN is thus laying the foundations for the large-scale industrialisation of electric drive systems for trucks and buses.

The commercial vehicle manufacturer is receiving support from the Bavarian State Government, which has promised a contribution of around 30 million euros to energy research and technology funding for the period 2023 to 2027, provided that the funding and budgetary requirements are met. These funds will be used to conduct research in battery assembly, cell chemistry and development, battery safety, and ultimately battery recycling to ensure the sustainability of the propulsion mode.

Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus SE, says: “We are now starting to industrialise electromobility and continue on our path to climate-neutral mobility in commercial vehicles. It is a groundbreaking location and investment decision for the next decades.

“At the same time, it is part of MAN’s transformation into a provider of sustainable transport solutions. This now paves the way for a commercial vehicle e-cluster ‘made in Bavaria’, consisting of the production of e-trucks at MAN in Munich, battery production in Nuremberg, research & development at both locations and excellent cooperation with the respective colleges, universities and institutes.

“With our investment decision, we are securing around 350 jobs at the Nuremberg site and hundreds if not thousands of jobs in Germany. Such important decisions can only be made in close cooperation with all parties involved from the employer and employee sides as well as politics.”