MAN Truck & Bus introduced a completely newly developed truck generation for the first time in 20 years in February.
The company says the development of the new range has been oriented towards the changing requirements of the transportation industry and claims it sets new standards for – among other things – assistance systems, driver orientation and digital networking.
Like its competitors – including TRATON stablemate Scania – the new truck generation represents the development of the company from vehicle manufacturer to a provider of ‘intelligent and sustainable transport’ solutions.
Headlining features include fuel savings of up to eight percent, enabling the new MAN Truck Generation to achieve significant reductions in CO2. Meanwhile, the newly developed turn assist system helps to prevent serious accidents in urban traffic (a feature it says is coming four years before the legally prescribed introduction.) A lane change assistant also warns the driver of vehicles in the next lanes.
During the presentation, MAN went out of its way to demonstrate that it has involved customers and drivers in the development right from the beginning, so that their requirements could ‘consistently be made’ part of the new vehicle.
“We make our customers’ business easier, more efficient and thereby more successful. Simplifying business – this is our claim, our promise,” said Joachim Drees, chairman of the Executive Board at MAN Truck & Bus SE. “The new MAN Truck Generation allows us to fulfil this more comprehensively than ever before.”
MAN’s new blockbuster is a sequel to the MAN TGA, which was premiered way back in 2000. That ruggedised hauler helped advance heavy duty truck design for construction applications. According to the company, not only does its new leading MAN follow suit, it also brings a new level of comfort, safety, efficiency, reliability, service as well as connectivity and digitalisation.
In the launch notes, MAN says its new truck takes on the challenges of a transportation industry which is more diverse and complex than ever: “forecasts for the future indicate that fundamental transformation of the industry is in “full gear”.
This brings great challenges with it, says MAN, with the transport volume in the EU alone set to increase by an additional 40 percent in the next 20 years. At the same time, strict legal regulations are intended to reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent by 2025 (with an additional reduction by 30 percent by 2030), says MAN: “To make matters worse, there is a growing shortage of drivers. According to current statistics, in Germany there will be a shortage of around 150,000 qualified professional drivers in the next two years alone. Additionally, increasingly comprehensive digitalisation across all logistics processes sets a fast pace for transport companies.”
Drees said that the latest MAN trucks represent its own answer to modern fleet challenges that may not have existed back at the turn of the century.
“Our customers expect us to provide them with answers to these questions, and rightly so,” said Drees. “For their sake, we need to be one step ahead of these changes with all their direct and indirect effects. This is a huge, but at the same time, extremely exciting task – it means that we need to think in different, new dimensions as the manufacturer of our products. We do this with our new truck generation.”
This is why the new MAN truck generation offers everything which customers and drivers have always valued and expected from their MAN vehicles – only even better, the company claims.
The German giant says that it wants to take the burden off freight forwarders and drivers and make their daily work easier, despite increasingly complex framework conditions. In doing so, MAN has focussed on four core topics: the driver in their work place, the vehicle’s efficiency and its reliable usability, as well as the strong and competent partnership for customers.
In order to optimise the work place in the truck and to adjust it to better meet the daily requirements of the driver, their performance and motivation need to be placed at the forefront: “After all, the decisive building blocks for a transport company’s economic success are the commitment and satisfaction of drivers.”
This time around, MAN has drawn on the expertise and feedback of drivers and business people throughout the entire development process. The new MAN truck generation has been designed with user-friendliness, optimum ergonomics, operation in mind making it a more intuitive and reliable ride; allowing for networking with digital devices and applications and, last but not least, providing optimum space, a well-thought-out storage concept and perfect sleeping comfort – all this geared towards needs which were determined based on experience.”
Modern assistance systems such as the newly developed turn assist, the traffic jam assistant as well as lane change assist also reduce the strain on the driver and ensure increased safety in road traffic.
Beneath the driver, the Euro 6d engine range, which was introduced back in 2019, is now at its full efficiency with the new generation.
According to MAN, it has been able to perfect the interplay of the units with additional, newly developed consumption-reducing driveline and software components provides the future series with a ‘trailblazing’ level of efficiency: “In this way, the new MAN Truck Generation saves up to eight percent of fuel compared to the Euro 6c predecessor version in classic long-haul transport applications, and thus achieves a clear reduction in CO2,” it claims.
The improved aerodynamics of the new vehicle design also play their part in this reduction, says MAN. The company is offering enhanced practice-oriented training and instruction options with digital applications, “in order to support drivers in even more efficient driving methods.”
The trucks themselves
Sensibly, MAN Truck & Bus is building on the tried and tested, and mixing it with improvements. You still have a familiar model series line-up, for instance. Long-haul and heavy-duty transport jobs are still catered for by MAN TGX models. They remain recognisable by their wide, long and high cabs. Furthermore, buyers will again have a choice of three engine series offering a range of power outputs. the top-of-the-range MAN D38 can be rigged up to 640 hp; the mid-range MAN D26 from 430 hp to 510 hp; or for light long-haul transport the MAN D15 from 330 to 400 hp.
Sensibly, MAN Truck & Bus is building on the tried and tested, and mixing it with improvements. You still have a familiar model series line-up, for instance. Long-haul and heavy-duty transport jobs are still catered for by MAN TGX models. They remain recognisable by their wide, long and high cabs. Furthermore, buyers will again have a choice of three engine series offering a range of power outputs. the top-of-the-range MAN D38 can be rigged up to 640 hp; the mid-range MAN D26 from 430 hp to 510 hp; or for light long-haul transport the MAN D15 from 330 to 400 hp.
Alongside classic 4×2 and 6×2 semi-trailer tractors and chassis units, the 6×4 and 8×4 variants are also still available for the TGX, as they are a popular choice for heavy-duty transport operations. Although the 4×2 semi-trailer tractor can optionally be ordered with MAN HydroDrive, its hydrostatic front-axle drive providing additional traction on unpaved surfaces. With this diversity of options, the MAN TGX covers a range from 18t to 41t gross vehicle weight (GVW). For heavy-duty applications, a 250t gross train weight is possible.
The new MAN TGS is targeted as before on the heavy-duty construction vehicle, distribution and municipal services sectors. This model series is characterised by narrow cabs, because in typical applications both low unladen weight and good visibility are key. In terms of power units, MAN offers the TGS with the D26 or D15 engine, covering a broad power range from 330 to 510 hp.
“The wide range of variants also makes the MAN TGS the king among the lions when it comes to drive configurations,” says the company.
If the vehicle is mainly driven on paved roads, and additional traction is only occasionally required, MAN HydroDrive can be combined with a 2, 3- or 4-axle MAN TGS. Featuring such a variety of set-ups, the gross vehicle weight of the new MAN TGS ranges from 18 to 41 tonnes.
The light and medium tonnage ranges in the new truck generation are again covered by the MAN TGL and MAN TGM. There is a choice of four new narrow cabs: short, long, high with a bed, and the crew cab. The crew cab is used in the construction industry, by municipal service providers, as well as by emergency services. With its 4-cylinder version of the D08 engine, the new TGL covers a range from 7.5 to 12 tonnes. If that unit’s 160 to 220 hp power range is not sufficient, the TGL can also be equipped with the 6-cylinder 250 hp D08 engine.
That is also the basic power unit for the MAN TGM range, which extends up to a 320 hp 6-cylinder D08. The tonnage range of the new MAN TGM takes up where the new MAN TGL stops, extending from 12t, 15t and 18t to 26t gross vehicle weight (GVW).
While the MAN TGL is available exclusively in 4×2 versions, the MAN TGM also offers 6×2, 6×4 and 4×4 wheel configurations, which makes it attractive not only for medium-heavy overland distribution transport and urban logistics but also for many applications in construction, municipal services and fire-fighting.Comprehensive product improvements for components and in the areas of maintenance and service reduce service life costs.
Likewise, the new MAN truck generation offers significant payload advantages for weight-sensitive application sectors.
How ‘good’ a truck is when it is in use largely depends on how efficiently and easily it fulfils its transport task. An important parameter here is reliability.
MAN says: “Endeavours to make the tried and true even better with the new truck generation, in order to ensure the long-standing product quality (which is repeatedly confirmed in the TÜV report) for the future as well. Take for example the newly developed, simplified, powerful and future-proof electronics architecture, which will significantly improve and expand the functionalities of the trucks.”
Additionally, a comprehensively developed, digitalised maintenance management system reduces operating costs and ensures maximum availability of the new MAN TG vehicles. Fleet management and drivers are supported through numerous digital functionalities and services.
At the same time as the new truck generation, MAN is introducing a new consultation and offer system which is entirely oriented towards the needs of the customer. It follows a product logic which is consistently oriented towards the application profile. It says this allows for a new MAN TGX, TGS, TGM or TGL to be put together into a truck that fits the exact transport task, using comprehensively adjustable and flexible configuration options.
This includes individually coordinated services from maintenance, financing and digital services, “which make the truck a holistic, integrated transport solution – all this from a single source, with competent personal contact partners. Furthermore, MAN Individual provides a comprehensive portfolio of options to enhance the vehicle and make customer-specific adaptations ex-works.”
In order for series production of the new MAN truck generation to be ready to go and to be able to simultaneously offer the previous models during the transition phase until the end of 2020, MAN has invested around 100 million euros at its Munich site alone. Up to 500 cabs from the comprehensive range of the new MAN truck generation and the previous TG series are produced a day.
Additional investment of 85 million euros went into the new cab paint shop of the main factory, which can now meet the increased output of cab construction without any problems. It is one of the most state of the art and environmentally friendly plants in Europe and another step on the way to a ‘green factory’, which MAN is dedicated to achieving.
At the plant in Steyr, Austria where the TGL and TGM series continue to roll off the production line, a new and cutting-edge paint shop was also put into operation. All plastic attachment parts for the entire MAN production network will be exclusively processed there in the future.
Alongside production, MAN has also restructured its offer processes with the launch of the new truck generation.
“At the centre of this is a fundamental change in method in product logic which manifests itself in new configuration processes and tools,” it notes. “When creating the offer, the core thought here is to place the individual transport task of the customer at the forefront. This results in a portfolio which is more closely aligned with the market and customers, with a completely integrated range of trucks, After Sales services, finance and digital services.
“The configuration and offer process is thereby not just much faster, but also provides a high level of flexibility when putting together the perfect tool for the customer’s transport task.”
