MAN’s eTGX feeds the grid in SPIRIT-E demonstration

MAN Truck & Bus has become the first European commercial vehicle manufacturer to publicly demonstrate bidirectional charging on a heavy-duty truck, using a battery-electric MAN eTGX with 480 kW/h of usable energy. The test ran at logistics firm Spedition Schmid near Regensburg, as part of the SPIRIT-E research project.

Three use cases anchor the work: Vehicle-to-Site (V2S), Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). The first two let operators draw stored truck energy at their own depots, smoothing peak loads, raising photovoltaic self-consumption and powering buildings or other vehicles. MAN says intelligent energy management can cut electricity costs by 10% to 20%.

For an e-truck running 100,000 km a year, that translates into up to 20,000 km of driving “for free”, helping the total cost of ownership case against diesel. The set-up is best suited to regional operations where depot dwell times allow the battery to act as storage.

V2G extends the model to public grid services, with e-trucks feeding power back during peak-price periods or to support grid stability. MAN expects V2G to become a viable revenue stream for fleet operators by the end of the decade.

The SPIRIT-E consortium is led by the Technical University of Munich, with Fraunhofer IEE, the Research Centre for Energy Economics (FfE), Shell-owned SBRS, TenneT, Hubject, Consolinno Energy and MAN as partners. Tests have included overnight building supply and electric car charging from a truck battery.

Source: MAN Truck & Bus