Episode 27: Charging Forward: E-Trucks and Germany’s Road to Sustainable Transport

Germany has long been an innovator in truck manufacturing and is leading the way on the next generation of electric drive solutions. Though still in its early stage, logistics is shifting gears, and registration figures for electric trucks in Germany are twice as high as the EU average. From 2021 to 2023, the number of e-powered vehicles on German roads almost doubled. But what still needs to change for e-trucks to become the industry standard, and when will the shift likely be complete? To get some answers, we talk to a German trucking company and one of the world largest manufacturers of heavy transport vehicles.

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Our Guests

Kristiane Schmidt, Sustainability Manager at Contargo | © www.julianhuke.com

Kristiane Schmidt is Sustainability Manager at Contargo and an enthusiast for the development of sustainable solutions in the logistics sector. With a Master of Science in Physics and an MBA in Sustainability Management, she combines scientific precision with practical commitment. At Contargo, she relies on facts and empathetic communication to actively and sensitively drive change.

Andreas Ritter | © Andreas Ritter

Andreas Ritter has been working in container logistics for over ten years and has in-depth specialist knowledge and practical experience in this field. He is particularly interested in the optimization of processes and the further development of hinterland logistics. As Terminal Manager of the Hof site and a member of the Transport and Mobility Committee of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Upper Franconia Bayreuth and the Hof Chamber of Industry and Commerce committee, he is actively involved in shaping the future of the industry.

Nils Heine | © MAn

Nils Heine has been working in various functions in the automotive sector for over 30 years. Since the launch of the new MAN TG3 series in February 2020, he has been responsible for sales at MAN as well as for zero-emission truck projects and their market launch in Europe. He demonstrates that the switch to zero-emission driving is not only exciting, but also necessary, with his personal drive - he rides his bike to work 90% of the time.

Transcript of this episode

 [sound diesel-truck]

Presenter:
This is the sound of the past and largely the present.

[sound E-truck]

Presenter: 
And this is the sound of the future of road transport. Electric trucks. They’re becoming an increasing common sight on roads in Germany and throughout the EU. There were almost 80 thousand of them operating on German streets last year. Online retailer Amazon has just placed a big order Amazon with Daimler Truck, and logistics giant DB Schenker, has also taken delivery on e-trucks made by M-A-N.

Nils Heine, MAN
It's all about decarbonization. And within the decarbonization, it's about efficiency. And when we talk about efficiency, of course, we can talk about the efficiency in terms of energy. And the second topic is of course, the efficiency of the transport in terms of costs. Because the lower energy you need the better it is.

That’s Nils Heine, Vice President of Go-To-Market and Alternative Drives at M-A-N Truck & Bus. He’s got a point. Transport accounts for around a quarter of CO2 emissions in the EU, and road transport about three-quarters of that. So there are few alternatives to electrifying the trucking industry – which is creating lots of business opportunities. But will those opportunities outweigh the great challenges of such a massive change in logistics?
Welcome to INTO Germany, the German business podcast, brought to you by the international business promotion agency Germany Trade and Invest. I’m your host Kelly O’Brien. 
We’ll get the lowdown on M-A-N’s plans for e-trucks a bit later. But first, let’s talk to our second guest: Kristiane Schmidt, sustainability manager at Contargo. The Duisburg-based logistics company carries out transportation between the German North Sea ports and the European hinterland. It maintains a network of container terminals, shipping and rail lines as well as a truck fleet – which is relying more and more on electric drives! To get some details, we’re joined now by Kristiane and her colleague Andreas Ritter, who is responsible for the operations of one of Contargo’s terminals, located in the northern Bavarian town of Hof. 
Kristiane, tell us: What role does Germany play in the European logistics network?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo 
Germany is more like a transit hub due to its central location in Europe. And it's the largest economy in Europe. And we have an advanced motorway and railway network, which makes us a key player in combined transport in Europe. Whenever you want to go, for example, from Poland to France or to one of the big harbors, if it's Rotterdam or Antwerp, you have to cross Germany and whenever you want to go from the north to the south. If you want to connect like the Adria ports, then you also have to cross Germany.

Presenter:
Germany has been doing a lot to support electric road transport. Purely electrically powered vehicles, including electric trucks, are exempt from Germany’s vehicle tax until 2030. Additionally, companies can claim a special depreciation allowance for newly purchased electric commercial vehicles. And there was the recently elapsed “Directive on the promotion of light and heavy commercial vehicles with alternative, climate-friendly drive systems and associated refueling and charging infrastructure.” It included grants of up to 80% for the purchase of e-trucks and for the installation or expansion of the corresponding charging infrastructure. Did you benefit from this directive when it came into force in 2021?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
A lot of players in the markets weren’t there yet to get some of the funding because they didn't have the concept. And this was a good start for us because we did operate our first electric trucks since 2019. So we had a lot of experience by then. And that's why we were able to set up a concept and then get the funding for overall now 90 electric trucks and also 90 fast charging points, including a smart energy management. So this was a really strong start for us.

Presenter:
What is the situation in other European countries?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
It depends on what part of the system you're looking at. For example, even how good is the grid connection and how well is that set up, which is a difficult point in some other states. So I think they all have some kind of advantage. When we're looking, for example, to Switzerland, you have this fee that you have to pay when you're crossing from Germany to Switzerland, which is pretty high, but you don't have to pay that if you're using electric trucks, which makes transports from Germany to Switzerland or the other way round with an electric trucks competitive with the diesel trucks already right now. And then, for example, in Poland, they have great funding projects. In the Netherlands, they already have a good charging network for electric trucks and are also setting up a route for dynamic charging right now, which is also a great solution to charge the trucks or to switch a huge amount of trucks to electric.

Presenter:
Given that the funding has ended, I guess the market has slowed down a bit?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
It definitely slowed down. But on the other hand, all the car manufacturers, they are obliged to introduce electric vehicles into the market. So they have to make sure that they reach a certain number, a certain percentage by European law within the next years. Otherwise, they get like really big fines. So they have like this huge self-made incentive to get them into the market. And this is why we see a lowering in the price right now, which is a good thing, because when there is no funding and the price is going down, that's a great start to have the electric vehicles compatible in the market.

Presenter:
Apart from costs and charging infrastructure, what other challenges are there when switching to e-trucks?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
There's also a huge need in support. And also Switching to electric trucks is also really important considering change management. There's a lot of shift in the mindset that needs to be done. So there there are a lot of people involved when you introduce electric trucks. There is the driver itself. But then there's also the people operating the charging infrastructure. They are the ones setting everything up. There are the people who need to sell the electric trucks afterwards. There are the people who have to pay for everything. So controlling and also management positions needs to be on board. So a lot of people in this transition are included. And this is why this is such a task regarding to change management, to get them all on board. Because if we have an electric truck and a charging infrastructure, but we don't have a truck driver who wants to sit on the truck, then we can't use the truck.

Presenter:
Andreas, you’re in touch with the drivers on a daily basis. What’s your experience?

Andreas Ritter, Contargo
For the Hof location, we have currently four electric trucks here running in our daily business and in the beginning the drivers were really skeptical because they said: Okay, it's going to be a different driving experience. We don't know how far the trucks will be able to go. And you have a higher focus on regenerative braking. So you have to drive a little differently than you would with a regular diesel truck. We did a training with the drivers here. And obviously there was a little bit of an adjustment period. But when I talk to the drivers now that are actually driving on those electric trucks, they are super, super happy because it's a lot quieter than the diesel trucks are. It's smoother with the handling. It's just overall, I guess, a less stressful driving experience.

Presenter:
Looking at your entire fleet, what role do E-trucks play?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
Contargo overall is operating a thousand trucks. And of those thousand trucks, there are roughly 300 for long distance transport and then 700 for the short distance transports from our container terminals to our customers. And we expect that we can switch all those short distance transports to electric trucks within the next year. We committed ourselves, regarding our own trucks, we won't be buying new diesel trucks. We will just buy new electric trucks and then try to engage our subcontractors and set up some incentives for subcontractors to make sure they also have a good transition to electric trucks and that the goal is by 2035 to have 40% electric trucks in our fleet.

Presenter:
Transporting goods from A to B involves countless stages. Ship, rail, road. It’s a finely tuned network. How will the supply chain change when switching to e-trucks?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
I'd also like to divide between the local transport and the long haul transport. For the local transport, the diesel trucks can largely be replaced by electric trucks. That's pretty easy. They are suitable right now for every kind of transport and also, for example, for transporting hazardous goods in box containers. That's also allowed with the electric trucks. And there's already one on the market available. One electric truck was also available for transporting hazardous goods in tank containers. So there is really no reason why not to switch to an electric truck. The main difference is that the electric truck is slightly heavier and that impacts the load capacity.
And then for the long haul transport, the charging infrastructure is a critical point. So we have now the newest generation of electric trucks, which is the eActros 600, which offers a range of 500km. And that's enough to match the driving times between the mandatory brakes. So enough kilometers you can reach and then the driver anyway has to stop. But then you need to make sure that he doesn't have to drive somewhere all the way off the road to charge this vehicle. And then there needs to be a proper stopping point where you can also do a proper brake, has everything he needs around. So this the long haul transport really depends on overcoming this range limitations by setting up proper charging infrastructure.

Presenter:
So, if we look at the current charging infrastructure – Is it possible to deliver goods with e-trucks to every corner of Germany?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
Whenever you're asking a truck driver he'd say: What’s the most important for me is that I can drive there with the whole truck so I don't need to leave the trailer somewhere else and just go there with the machine, but go there with the whole truck. And then we have a lot of fast charging points in Germany, but most of them are designed for cars. So the charging infrastructure needs to be designed to support such a high power for a longer time. And we don't have that many charging stations in Germany right now who are available to charge trucks and even make sure that the truck driver can go there with the whole truck. But that's in progress. So there is like a nice overview by the Nationale Leitstelle in Germany, where you can also filter for which charging station is available for me as a truck driver. And it considers all those points I've mentioned and you can also see where they are going to build the charging infrastructure.

Presenter:
On officially lists at present there are 230 German charging points in 54 locations with a total charging capacity of 37,000 kW. A further 351 locations are planned which would mean an additional grid connection capacity of roughly three-and-a-half-million kilowatts. Can you tell us  about that please?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
Right now the tender is open to construct the fast charging infrastructure for trucks at the managed and unmanaged rest areas. So whenever this tender is over, they're going to start building and I hope we see a lot of progress regarding this in 2025 already. So right now we can just do like a few routes through Germany with the long haul truck which are already available. For example, Aral has a lot of fast charging stations already which are available for truck. But by the end of 2025, I think we'll have a lot more charging stations available by then. 
From the European Union, we have the A4 mandates, which means that we need to expand the charging infrastructure by European law in Germany, that’s at least two chargers per kilometer along the 10T network where Germany is also part of. And this shows, again, that we have such a big important role as the transit hub that it's really important to follow this European law, to set up the charging infrastructure, because otherwise all those cross country transports couldn't switch to lower emission vehicles.

Andreas Ritter, Contargo
I think the second thing for for me from an operational point of view, which is always interesting to know is: How much do you also have to pay at those charging stations? So that greatly differs right now, and especially if it's not your own infrastructure that you're charging at, it can be really expensive to charge at those available charging stations. And price and logistics is always a hot, hot topic. So at the moment you can find customers that are also willing to pay more. But if you want to expand that to more customers, it's also crucial that the pricing will get similar to the diesel truck. And for that, the pricing at the charging stations is also important.

Presenter:
Speaking of customers: Sustainability has become a selling point. But, is there a willingness to pay a bit more for greener transport?

Andreas Ritter, Contargo
I’d say there's still a great difference when you look at the different companies. I can say for the local area here, the larger the company, the more they're talking about it, the more they are thinking about their CO2 footprint and what they can do to reduce emission. And they’re also willing to invest in infrastructure, to invest in projects with us to get those electric trucks running. The smaller the company, the less they are thinking about like new concepts and the more the price is still relevant.

Presenter:
Transformation always goes hand in hand with new business opportunities. Are there any partnerships and projects that opened up for you throughout this process?

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
For us, this topic is really important for ramping up charging infrastructure and trucks in Germany. I did already say that there is this huge incentives for the truck manufacturers to get the trucks into the market. So they are setting up private charging infrastructure, which is really good for us because there we might get a cheaper price than we have at the open charging infrastructure. 
And then that would be also to us to talk to our customers, where the truck is anyway standing at the at the ramp to get loaded. So there the truck is standing and waiting, which would be optimal to charge the truck. And often you have those huge roofs with a lot of space where you could put photovoltaic and then the truck standing there during the day and could be charged. So that would be a really good thing to partner with our customers and give them some feedback regarding charging infrastructure, because we have also some experience from setting up our own charging infrastructure and then they are setting up their own charging infrastructure for all of their subcontractors at the loading ramps.
Andreas was already talking about that they are looking more and more into their footprint and we are part of their scope three footprint. So those companies who are already looking at this scope three right now would see that there's a huge impact regarding their logistics processes.

Presenter:
If you look back at all those years you’ve been dealing with e-trucks: What lessons have you learned?

Andreas Ritter , Contargo
There's still development in the trucks. So like Kristiane said that there's a difference between how far the trucks can go. You just have to plan a little differently. Usually in the summer time they were able to do three round trips for our customer and in the winter time they probably can only manage to do two transports a day. You have to get a feeling for what they can do. And that's important for participants.

Kristiane Schmidt, Contargo
There's a lot of change going on and there's a lot of misinformation in the market right now along a lot of old stories. Get yourself informed because a lot of them aren’t valid anymore. For example, that you can't use it the same way than a diesel truck. That's not true, especially for short distances. That's really working well. And looking at the charging infrastructure, that would be the point with the peak loads. Whenever you're charging a truck, you're having a lot of power at the same time, and your electricity price depends on your highest peak load in the year. In Germany that's the case. So you should think about peak shaving when talking about or setting up your own charging infrastructure.
I would always encourage companies to get going, to talk to someone who's already operating electric trucks. And then also just have a look at the numbers. Just do a TCO calculation, not just buying the electric truck, but also using the electric truck. Because when buying an electric truck, it's way more expensive than the diesel truck. But when operating the electric truck, and especially if you can charge the truck on your own site where you have your own electric price, then it's way cheaper than operating a diesel truck. And when you're looking at the whole lifespan of the electric truck, it might already right now be cheaper than the diesel truck.

Presenter:
An optimistic outlook! Many thanks Kristiane and Andreas for your insights into the future of zero-emission delivery traffic. What does this change mean for truck manufacturers? We’ll put that question to Nils Heine, Vice President Go-To-Market and Alternative Drives at M-A-N Truck & Bus, one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. But before we talk to Nils, let’s have a look at some business news stories coming out of Germany:

NEWS

America First
The United States has overtaken China as Germany’s largest trading partner. According to calculations by Germany Trade & Invest, Germany’s international business promotion agency, trade between Germany and the US reached 255 billion euros in 2024 compared with 247 billion euros for China . It’s the first time since 2016 that China was NOT Germany’s largest trading partner.

Hydrogen Pipeline
Germany has signed a letter of intent with Algeria, Austria, Italy and Tunisia to create a new hydrogen corridor between northern Africa and southern Europe. The pipeline will be 3500 kilometers in length and transport more than 163 terawatt hours of the hydrogen gas per year. Roughly a third of it will go to Germany.

Capital Growth
German biotech companies took in nearly two billion euros in capital in 2024 – 78 percent more than in the previous year. That’s according to industry association Bio Deutschland and consultants Ernst&Young. One focus was on companies involved in cancer treatment. They raised 898 million euros. The three largest financing rounds of 2024 in the sector were booked by companies in this area.

Half A Billion

The European Investment Bank has extended a 500 million euro line of credit to lithium company Vulcan Energy in the southwestern German town of Landau. The Australian-German firm aims to produce enough lithium hydroxide monohydrate per year to cover the demands of 500,000 electric vehicles. Vulcan extracts lithium from naturally heated subterranean brine. In doing so, it also produces renewable geothermal energy for local communities and industry.

And finally Changing Gears

Germany’s regional states and municipalities continue to underwrite the country’s transition to electric mobility. The state of Baden-Württemberg and the city of Tübingen are investing nearly 25 million euros in e-charging infrastructure, largely for buses. And North-Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous of the German states has earmarked 14 million euros to support various e-mobility projects, including expanding the charging infrastructure specially for electric trucks.

Presenter:
And with that we’re back at this podcast’s central topic. Germany has a long tradition in truck construction and has always been at the forefront of innovation. Among the biggest players is M-A-N Truck & Bus with an annual turnover of around 14.8 billion euros in 2023. As Vice President Go-To-Market and Alternative Drives, Nils Heine oversees the company’s transformation towards an emission-free future. The company's website states: “The future of MAN is digital, automated and electric.” Tell us Nils, why is that?

Nils Heine, MAN
It's all about decarbonization. And within the decarbonization, it's about efficiency. And when we talk about efficiency, of course, we can talk about the efficiency in terms of energy. And there, an electrical vehicle has the lowest loss, I would say, from the production of the energy. And the second topic is of course, the efficiency of the transport in terms of costs, because the lower energy you need for, I would say, 100km, the better it is. And then especially if you compare electric transport and H2 transport: There's no hydrogen in nature, so you always have to start from electricity. Then you have the electrolization. You make a hydrogen out of it and then you have to retransfer it. Either you burn it or you make electricity out of it. And that's where you have a loss as well. And therefore, you need three times more primary energy for H2 transport than with BAF transport.

Presenter:
So, electro-mobility is currently one of the most promising technologies within the „green transformation“ of the logistics sector. Do you feel it being prioritized sufficiently?

Nils Heine, MAN
I would say that there could be much more focus on this topic because we are at the starting point, we have the products available and now we have to ramp it up. And there are a lot of advantages as we talk about decarbonization and efficiency in terms of energy. But I think the framework has to be established right now. And what we haven't talked about yet is of course, the TCO topic. So the total cost of ownership. After five years, we expect to be on the same level, all costs. If it's the vehicle costs and the energy costs and service costs. And then afterwards, of course, the electric vehicle gets way more cheaper. But what is challenging, and that is important, is that at the moment, a battery electric vehicle is like 2.5 times more expensive than a diesel vehicle. So you have a higher upfront investment. When we talk with our customers, doesn't matter which sector it is, if it's transport or municipalities or wherever, it's always: At the beginning is expensive. And that's the challenge we are facing currently.

Presenter:
We were talking to Contargo earlier on. One topic that came up was the government’s decision to stop the funding for commercial vehicles with climate-friendly drive systems. What do you think: Are such support schemes useful?

Nils Heine, MAN
It's a very national approach that we see across Europe. But it's always, time wise, quite limited. You open it for two months, then you close it and then you get some orders. Some transport companies are changing or switching to e-mobility and that's the good news. But I think at the long term, our transport companies, they have contracts like three years, five years, and they need some planning stability, I would say. And that's why I would say the funding is, let's say only one topic. It has to be a framework that has to be stable over a couple of years. Because one thing is the transport company, if they charge at their depo as well, they have to invest in charging infrastructure. And I'm not a specialist in financing, but charging infrastructure, if you have a depo, the depreciation works over years, it works for ten years or even 15 years. And that's why they have a more or less stable system that they can, let's say, establish their financial company planning. It's about the stable framework, I would say, and it's about volume.

Presenter:
Thats also an aspect often mentioned when it comes to the establishment of the charging infrastructure…

Nils Heine, MAN
We as a manufacturer, of course, we have now done our investment and now we need volume on it and to to ramp it up, to scale it up, that's one topic. But as well outside the vehicle, what never was important to us when we were still working in the diesel world, because there we had some charging stations all over the country, all over Europe, all over the world. If you see some old photos like 70 years ago, stations were quite small. And that's where we are at the starting point as well with the charging infrastructure. But if you would invest into a public charging station, you need someone who is purchasing energy from you so that you can sell. And that's why we need as well volume, I would say, in all dimensions. It's not only us as manufacturers, it is as well the charge park operators, how we call them, because they need a return on their investment as well.

Presenter:
Let's take a look at the registration figures: In 2024, there were roughly 330,000 new trucks registered throughout Europe. A little over two percent were electric vehicles. In Germany, the figure was 4 percent. What is the situation like at MAN?

Nils Heine, MAN
We are currently starting, by end of first quarter, we will have 200 new BAF vehicles on the streets. I would say it's the newest generation that we have. We have already launched five years ago a small version of the eTGM, so a medium truck to gain some experience. In quarter two, we will start our real serial production where we are able to ramp up the volume. And something special about our production is as well. In the same plant, we are producing diesel and electric vehicles, so we are able to to accelerate the switch towards E-mobility quite, I would not say quite easy, but we are able to manage it.

Presenter:
Take us into the factory: What are the challenges of switching from diesel to e-trucks in terms of production?

Nils Heine, MAN
When you compare heavy vehicles with passenger cars, passenger cars in terms of variants, they are quite limited. We are used to have a quite broad portfolio on our production line. Nevertheless, in terms of how you construct the vehicle, it's different. We try to be as close to the diesel as possible, meaning that there, where in former times was the engine and the gearbox, there is now a battery pack of the same dimensions. So we use that space. So there we act quite similar. On the other hand, when you build the vehicle, you have these new high voltage cables which are thick like a finger. I would say even more. And you need other capabilities in terms of how you build the vehicles as well as the employees who are working there. They have to be re-skilled. They have to work with high voltage systems. That's a huge change as well. And that's the reason why we start slowly, with these 200 units. We take our time to bring it together. It's a serial vehicle, but it's more time consuming in terms of production.
The other technical challenges that we are facing with our customers as well to get the energy where it's needed. It's not the availability of energy in total when you say see it nationwide. It happens that some customers at one depo they are easily handling it because there's energy available. And the other one, which is only a couple of kilometers away, it doesn't work because there you don't have the electrical infrastructure.

Presenter: 
So Nils, please get your crystal ball out. When will e-trucks become established on the roads?

Nils Heine, MAN
By today, we do not offer every diesel version that we have as well already as a BAF vehicle. But we had a look into our volumes that we have sold last year or the last two years. And 60% of the technical configuration, we are able to provide as a BAF vehicles, which is quite, quite a lot I would say. When we are coming to the market, and of course if there is no market, we are not able to sell, we expect that the beginning of the next decade we expect to achieve 50% with battery electric vehicles and that it will continue. But we expect, let's say in ten years, two third or even 80% might be electrical when you have the electrical system working. It's always the vehicle plus the charging.

Presenter:
M-A-N has been active in Bavaria for almost 200 years. Its predecessor company was founded in Augsburg. It later merged with a factory in Nuremberg. This history is still reflected in the name. M-A-N stands for Maschinenfabrik – machine factory – Augsburg-Nürnberg. What are the advantages of Germany as a production location?

Nils Heine, MAN
Of course, we are very linked to Germany with our sites in Nürnberg and in Munich. Nürnberg back in former times was our, our heart where we produced our engines. And Munich was or is still the production of our trucks. And I think our huge advantages on both sides, so we transferred Nürnberg or we are still transforming Nürnberg from engine-supplier-only to a battery supplier, which is the new important thing in the, in the truck. And the huge advantage that we have with these both sides, that we have production and engineering very close by, so that we, in the face of ramp up, we have really one team that is working on to make this happen. 
And we even have another dimension that we have to add: digitalization, of course gets much more important because you have to understand your transport system as the battery is impacted by, for example, on temperature and so on. We are close to the politicians that support us, but we are also close to the universities who support us as well. And there in the area of Nurnberg and in Munich, you have potential where you can go to get some forward thinking topics in terms of e-mobility, in terms of digitalization.

Presenter:
We’ve recently done a whole episode on Germany’s fertile R&D landscape, comprising universities and research institutes. If you want to learn more – have a listen to episode 26.

So, Nils, it sounds like business opportunities are opening up here. Are there any areas that you are focusing on in particular?

Nils Heine, MAN
There's a lot in an area where we never thought about in the past. It's about how to charge the vehicle. And there we did something what we never did before, we teamed up, I would say, with our competitors, and we created the joint Venture Milence to build up some public charging infrastructure, which is open to everybody, of course. And we expect that this charging joint venture will supply like one tenth of the charging points that we need in public charging across Europe. Another dimension is that we are charging with E.ON, to electrify our service stations as well because there we need as well charging infrastructure. And last but not least, we created a card which is called MAN Charge and go where we offer to our customers the broadest network of all charging points that are suitable for heavy trucks because today, of course, a lot of charging infrastructure is only for passenger cars. And there we are partnering with all charging infrastructure suppliers. If it's the old oil companies or some new players who have only electrical charging, to bring this together to have the best service for our customer.

Presenter:
Before we end, tell us: Why would you encourage other companies to jump on the bandwagon, or rather, the e-truck?

Nils Heine, MAN
I think besides all these charging topics and all these technical topics, driving an electric vehicle is quite impressive because it's so comfortable. It's very quiet inside. And what is very important for a truck as well, the maneuverability is way more easier than with a diesel. And that's why I would say: Just give it a try. Don't stick to your old habits how you use a vehicle. There are a lot of people who, let's say, somehow reluctant to this new propulsion concept. But once you have driven it, you see the advantages of it.

Presenter:
Thanks Nils for that assessment. Like every country, Germany is still facing challenges when it comes to the transformation of its logistics sector. But as always, those challenges – as well as the necessary adjustments – mean lots of business opportunities! As usual, before we say goodbye we’ll take a look at HOW GERMANY WORKS.    

HOW GERMANY WORKS
We’ve heard a lot on this episode about Germany’s EV charging infrastructure. But who’s actually building it? The answer is: a mix of public and private entities. Among the big-name private companies involved are Shell and Volkswagen. On the public side, ultimate responsibility rests the government’s transport ministry. To that end, it’s set up a National Center for Charging Infrastructure under the umbrella of a publicly owned company called NOW. NOW is what’s known in German as a Programmgesellschaft, an entity formed to oversee the completion of a finite project. It administers a host of funding programs. It also coordinates the expansion of the system. In its mission statement, it says it supports the planning, implementation and promotion of the EV charging infrastructure in general. In so doing, it keeps the overall system of public and non-public charging infrastructure and the users in mind. 
And that’s how Germany works.

Presenter:
We've come to an end of another episode of Into Germany. If you’re planning on delivering some sustainable business ideas to Germany, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Germany Trade and Invest. We will be happy to advise you. All at no cost because we’re a government agency. Get in touch at gtai.com. We’re also keen on your opinions, suggestions and questions. Please leave a comment in your favorite podcast app or drop us a line. You’ll find all the details in our show notes.

[sound of e-truck]

Presenter: 
Alright, that’s my ride, I’m off.
Till next time, “Auf Wiederhören,” keep on truckin’ and remember: Germany means business.
 

Presenter:
We've come to the end of another episode of Into Germany. Thanks again to our guests Professor Tom Fritz and Ministerial Department Director Armin Reinartz. If you’re investigating whether you could be bringing your business idea to Germany, get in touch with Germany Trade and Invest. GTAI has lots of fantastic research tools, and we’ll be happy to advise you… all at no cost because we’re a government agency. Get in touch at gtai.com. We’re also keen on your opinions, suggestions and questions. Please leave a comment in your favorite podcast app or drop us a line. You’ll find all the details in our show notes.
On this note - till next time, “Auf Wiederhören” and remember: Germany means business.