MAN Truck & Bus and ABB E-mobility have signed an exclusive cooperation agreement. The aim of the strategic partnership is to work even more closely together, particularly in the area of development.
Thomas Nickels, Senior Vice President Engineering at MAN, sees the cooperation as a speciality in the market: “Cooperation in the area of research and development is rather rare in our industry. Together with ABB E-mobility, we are striving for a trusting, binding and transparent partnership. We are already starting with the development of products and standards and are focussing on the special requirements of the commercial vehicle industry.”
The importance of cross-industry cooperation for the entire sector is particularly evident for megawatt charging system (MCS), Nickels continued: “At MCS, we are working with players from the entire sector to enable charging capacities in the megawatt range in the future and thus sustainable and economical long-distance heavy goods and passenger transport. By cooperating with ABB E-mobility, we can tackle the challenges of the new technology at an early stage and drive standardisation forward more quickly.”
These challenges include the ISO15118-20 communication standard and new ways of transmitting signals. The basis for megawatt charging is Ethernet communication, which is being used for the first time in electromobility. Early software and interoperability tests with vehicles and charging stations should help to establish reliable products as quickly as possible in an emerging market environment. This is why the cooperation, which is initially scheduled to run for three years, is focussing on the customer experience right from the start, in addition to the internal development and further development of charging stations, vehicles and software.
“High charging performance, reliable technology and customer confidence – these are the prerequisites for the success of electromobility in heavy goods and long-distance passenger transport. By working together with MAN right from the early product phase, we can respond even better to the needs of our customers. By 2025, we want to bring a product to the market that meets the requirements of logistics,” says Floris van de Klashorst, Senior Vice President Products & Hardware Platforms at ABB E-mobility.
“The market needs an ecosystem that interlocks and works reliably. That’s why we want to jointly develop a concept for the interaction of MCS and CCS that addresses issues such as space, energy supply and grid expansion. MAN’s extensive expertise helps us to develop customer-oriented solutions – both for use in the depot and on the track,” says van de Klashorst, giving an outlook on future projects.
The cooperation is not just limited to logistics: “MCS will also be used in future in the travel sector, for example for motorhomes and coaches. This will bring additional challenges and a change in user behaviour,” continues the Head of Development.