MAN finds eTGM truck promising for off-peak deliveries
MAN proves in Munich that e-trucks are suitable for inner-city driving at sensitive times. The test drives with the all-electric MAN eTGM truck showed a time saving of 15 to 30 per cent by shifting the time window of deliveries to the off-peak hours of the day.
Punctuality and plannability increased to almost 100 per cent. Naturally, noise reduction was also significant and made the new timeframes more feasible.
MAN ran the test drives as part of the EU’s EIT Urban Mobility project ZEUS. ZEUS is short for Zero Emission off-peak Urban deliverieS and aimed to reschedule deliveries to off-peak times, including nighttime. The idea is to decrease noise and congestion levels in cities like Munich while keeping the supply lines open.
“Every scientific study shows that moving inner-city deliveries to off-peak hours would mean that logistical processes could be executed more quickly and that the impact on all other traffic would be significantly lower than during peak hours,” explains Clemens Baumgärtner, Spokesperson for Labour and Economic Development for the City of Munich.
The tests were run with the MAN eTGM since November and prove the points as made above. Apart from increased efficiencies, noise reduction results could not speak any louder. “Perceived noise is reduced by at least a quarter, and in some cases by half, especially at speeds below 30 km/h,” reports Dr Christoph Jessberger, who works in Predevelopment at MAN Truck & Bus and oversaw the ZEUS project.
There is one issue though that the test run did not address. MAN reports that a “key challenge” was that retail businesses would need to restructure when they take deliveries. MAN points out that this could increase costs as affected businesses would need to shift to night or late shifts.
Volkswagen-owned MAN has been making the smaller delivery e-truck eTGM in a small series since late-2019. The decision to kickstart production in Austria followed real-life tests with clients. One of the largest fleets of eGTM trucks is operated by DPD in the UK. The mail and logistics company had ordered 100 e-trucks about a year ago. MAN officially launched the right-hand-drive eTGM in April 2020.
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