MAN Truck & Bus has announced plans to roll out battery repair centres in Europe to help create a closed loop for batteries.
The first two MAN battery repair centres are already active in Germany and Spain, with more to follow throughout 2024 and 2025. This includes plans for sites in Italy, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Poland and the UK.
This initiative is part of MAN’s Circular Economy Strategy to create a closed loop for batteries deployed in its electric trucks, city buses and vans.
Christopher Kunstmann, Senior Vice President Customer Service Management at MAN Truck & Bus said:Battery repair is a necessity for MAN in order to ensure the economic efficiency and operational readiness of our customers' electric vehicles at a high level. We also make a major contribution to the closed-loop approach of traction batteries, as this extends the battery life in the vehicle, which conserves important resources.
Primarily, MAN aims to utilise each battery in the vehicle for as long as possible through repair and remanufacturing.
Since 2023, the manufacturer has been leading the REVAMP project, which aims to automate assessments of the condition of used vehicle batteries. This will enable batteries to be remanufactured economically for use in vehicles or for other purposes.
To help close the loop for valuable battery materials, MAN is also focused on the recycling and return of raw materials into new battery cells. Indeed, a prerequisite for the battery closed loop is to ensure that sufficient recycled material is available.
