MUNICH: The MAN Polarexpress, a battery-powered eTGX semitrailer truck, has successfully completed the 3,400km journey from the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden to Munich.
Despite the sometimes deep winter conditions with snow and ice, which required tyres with special grip and thus increased rolling resistance, the 32-tonne electric truck completed the entire route with an average consumption of just 117kWh per 100km.
On sections of the route in Denmark and Germany with slightly warmer temperatures, consumption even fell to around 105kWh.
The range before recharging varied from around 400 to around 500km, meaning that the next charging station could always be reached safely, even in the Arctic Circle.
And the MAN Charge&Go charging card could be used to activate all of the charging stations controlled, regardless of the provider.
The artic grey MAN eTGX consumed a total of 4,500 kilowatt hours of electricity on the tour.
It generated 670kWh itself through energy recovery when braking and travelling downhill, which meant that a net total of only 3,830kWh had to be supplied through charging.
The Polarexpress mainly used charging stations that are powered by 100% renewable energy.
The eTGX saved up to 2.7 tonnes of CO2 on its way from the Arctic Circle to the Allianz Arena compared to a comparable diesel articulated lorry with an assumed average consumption of 27 litres per 100km.
There, FC Bayern legend Giovane Élber received the well-travelled electric truck on behalf of the club and its project to set up a high-performance charging park for electric trucks and buses in the local bus park.
"The aim of the MAN Polarexpress was to show that a fully electric tour from the Arctic Circle to Munich is already possible today with the new MAN eTruck and the existing public charging infrastructure," says MAN Truck & Bus executive board member for sales and customer solutions Friedrich Baumann.
The 3400km tour comprised a total of seven stages: from the Arctic Circle along the east coast of Sweden 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 finish point at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
On average, the MAN eTGX covered between 400 and 600km a day, depending on the route conditions and available charging infrastructure.
