MAN Truck & Bus
VOILÀ: PACKAGES WITH THE eTGE
When Mamadou Koné is on tour in central Paris, speed is of the essence. He delivers around 65 parcels and packages every morning and often does a second shift in the afternoon. On his route, he stops at people’s homes, offices, restaurants, and stores. Every now and then there is time for a quick chat — Koné knows his customers, and his customers know and appreciate him. Things have been much easier for him since he started driving an all-electric MAN eTGE van. “I no longer have to constantly start and stop the engine, because electric vehicles don’t idle like diesel delivery vans,” says the 27-year-old. “That makes my job very pleasant.”
Mamadou Koné has been working for DHL Express for more than two years. His delivery district is in Paris’s 9th arrondissement — a part of the city center famous for its bustling boulevards and department stores. Koné’s route takes him past the old Palais Garnier opera house and ornate building façades dating back to the 19th century. He also passes La Madeleine every day — the church that looks like an ancient temple.
Clean delivery in the city center
Driving a delivery vehicle in the center of Paris is no easy task. Again and again, Mamadou Koné has to stop because passersby suddenly step into the road or other vehicles pull out in front of him. His work rhythm is marked by constant braking and accelerating, more than six hours a day. With a combustion engine, this would make a lot of noise, use a lot of fuel, and produce a lot of exhaust fumes and CO2 emissions — in contrast to MAN’s electric van, which allows packages and parcels to be delivered with zero emissions. “It’s an ideal van for use in the city,” says Koné, and adds that it is great fun to drive.
Yellow runabout DHL Express courier Mamadou Koné delivers around 65 packages and parcels per shift with zero emissions in his electric MAN eTGE.
With its noiseless, electrically powered fleet, DHL is doing its part in Paris to help transform the transportation sector — an important milestone on the road to climate neutrality and greater efficiency. “We’re always looking for new solutions to reduce our environmental footprint,” says Laurent Zerafa, fleet manager at DHL Express in France. The company has doubled its green fleet to 100 vehicles in the space of two years. Each working day, DHL sends the electric MAN eTGE on tour in the heavy traffic of the 9th arrondissement. And the logistics company’s electric fleet is growing all the time — in Paris, France, and around the world.
Deutsche Post DHL Group has set itself an ambitious goal: 70 percent of its journeys to pick up and drop off mail items are to be zero-emission by 2025. And by 2050, the world’s leading logistics group aims to operate on a completely carbon-neutral basis. To achieve these goals, DHL is partnering with MAN. “We’re cooperating on a number of projects,” says Paul de Saxcé, Sales Director for Vans at MAN Truck & Bus France. “In the past,” he notes, “both sides were concerned with making efficient use of internal combustion engines. Today, our cooperation continues in the field of electric mobility.”
Fully charged in just three hours
In densely populated cities with high traffic volumes, the MAN eTGE really comes into its own. This is evident on Mamadou Koné’s journeys, too. He is on the road for hours, even though he only drives 14 kilometers per shift. When he has delivered all his parcels, he returns the van to the DHL branch at Porte d’Aubervilliers in the north of the Périphérique ring road, about four kilometers from his delivery district.
I no longer have to constantly start and stop the engine, because electric vehicles don’t idle like diesel delivery vans. That makes my job very pleasant.
Five questions for Laurent Zerafa, Fleet Manager at DHL Express France
Mr Zerafa, you are currently building up a fleet of electric delivery vehicles in Paris. Why?
Electric delivery vehicles play a key role in helping us achieve our sustainability targets. The DPDHL Group wants to be completely climate-neutral by 2050. So, we are starting in the cities and converting our fleets to climate-friendly electric vehicles step by step.
What are the advantages of using electric delivery vehicles in Paris?
We have three reasons for using electric vans like the MAN eTGE in Paris: first, they’re climate-friendly vehicles. Second, they’re optimal for use in urban short-haul traffic. And third, more and more cities are planning bans on diesel vehicles — Lyon, for instance, in addition to Paris.
How do the MAN eTGE vans perform at the moment in daily delivery operations?
Since we started using it two years ago, the MAN eTGE has really proven its worth. It’s more reliable and less maintenance-intensive than comparable diesel models. Our couriers especially like its assistance systems, driving comfort, and the powerful acceleration of the engine, which is really quiet.
How do you organize battery charging?
Since we make all our customer deliveries between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., we can charge our vehicle batteries at night. That takes about five hours. But if we need to, we can charge them more quickly as well: our 29 charging stations at our three Paris facilities can fully charge an MAN eTGE with up to eleven kilowatts in just three hours.
What do your customers and the people of Paris think about the use of these electric vans?
Our customers in Paris are glad that deliveries with an MAN eTGE are now even more efficient and climate-friendlier. And we like the vans, too. That’s why we’ve been using them in Lyon as well since February.
There, he can plug the vehicle into a quick-charge station — although this is not necessary every day. “A full battery usually lasts me more than a week,” he says. Naturally, his power consumption also depends on external factors such as air temperature, topography, and driving style. “As a rule, I plug in the van on Friday at the latest.” There is a growing number of public charging stations in Paris that Koné could theoretically use to recharge the battery, but he doesn’t need them, because the quick-charge stations at his DHL site take just three hours to return an empty battery to full power.
But the MAN eTGE doesn’t just run on electricity from the socket. Its battery also stores the kinetic energy generated by braking and rolling during the drive, which is then converted into electricity by a generator. Thanks to this recuperation, as it is called, the range of the vehicle can be increased: in city traffic, it can cover a realistic distance of between 120 and 140 kilometers.
Assistants in the electric van
When Mamadou Koné talks about his MAN eTGE, his enthusiasm for the vehicle is tangible. The driver’s seat is extremely comfortable, supports the body in all the right places, and is easy on the back. He also uses the reversing assistant regularly: the eight-inch display in the cockpit shows a clear view of the image from the rear-facing camera. “The safety systems are a great help,” says Koné. These include the emergency brake assist, which prevents rear-end collisions.
Meanwhile, Koné’s workday is drawing to a close and he returns to the branch. The charge level of his battery is still high enough to last for several more trips. “I’ll charge the eTGE today anyway,” he says as he connects the vehicle to a free charging point. “But for now, I’m going to call it a day.”
Text Heimo Fischer
Photos DHL, GettyImages/Alexander Spatari
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The specified fuel consumption and emission data has been determined according to the measurement procedures prescribed by law. Since 1st September 2017, certain new vehicles are already being type-approved according to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), a more realistic test procedure for measuring fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It is currently still required by law to state the NEDC figures for vehicles for passenger transport with registration class M1. In the case of new vehicles which have been type-approved according to the WLTP, the NEDC figures are derived from the WLTP data. In cases where the NEDC figures are specified as value ranges, these do not refer to a particular individual vehicle and do not constitute part of the sales offering.
Additional equipment and accessories (e.g. add-on parts, different tyre formats, etc.) may change the relevant vehicle parameters, such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, and, in conjunction with weather and traffic conditions and individual driving style, may affect fuel consumption, electrical power consumption, CO2 emissions and the performance figures for the vehicle.
Efficiency classes rate vehicles for passenger transport with an M1 passenger vehicle registration, according to the CO2 emissions under consideration of the empty vehicle weight. Vehicles which conform to the average are classified as D. Vehicles which are above the current average are classified as A+, A, B or C. Vehicles which are below average are classified as E, F or G.
Additional information regarding the official fuel consumption, and the official specific CO2 emissions of new vehicles for passenger transport, with an M1 passenger vehicle registration, can be found in the “Guide on the fuel economy, CO2-Emissions, and power consumptions of all New Passenger Car Models”. This guideline is available free of charge at all sales points and from the DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen, Germany. (https://www.datgroup.com/)
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