MAN is clear that this is more than a flashy demo. As Georg Grüneißl, head of product strategy at MAN Truck & Bus, points out, bidirectional charging shifts the vehicle’s role: the truck becomes an energy storage unit that can help cut costs while also supporting the wider power system.
The business case is straightforward: if a company can manage the energy stored in an electric truck battery intelligently, it can reduce electricity costs — especially where demand peaks occur or where on-site solar is in use.
From truck battery to depot, another vehicle, or the public grid
SPIRIT-E highlights three main ways the technology can be used:
- Power from the truck can be fed into a company’s own infrastructure — for example to shave peak demand, increase the share of electricity used from solar panels, or supply buildings and equipment.
- The e-truck can transfer energy to another vehicle, such as topping up an electric car.
- Electricity can be returned to the public grid, which in the future could create additional revenue opportunities — for instance when energy prices are high or through grid-stabilisation services.
MAN says the first two use cases could translate into electricity cost savings of around 10 to 20 percent in practice. In the manufacturer’s calculations, with an annual mileage of 100 thousand kilometres, that could mean up to 20 thousand kilometres of driving at no energy cost (in terms of electricity spend).
Photo: MAN
Best fit: regional operations
Bidirectional charging isn’t positioned as a universal solution for every fleet and every duty cycle. MAN sees the strongest case for electric trucks running regional routes, where annual mileage is below 100 thousand kilometres. Without longer dwell times, using the battery as an energy storage asset can simply be difficult to organise.
Within SPIRIT-E, real energy flows have already been put in place — including powering a building overnight from e-trucks and charging electric cars using energy stored in the vehicle.
Who’s behind SPIRIT-E?
SPIRIT-E brings together expertise from vehicle technology, energy, and systems integration. The consortium is led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Partners also include the Fraunhofer IEE Institute, the Research Center for Energy Economics (FfE), SBRS (Shell), TenneT, Hubject, Consolinno Energy, and MAN Truck & Bus.
Photo: MAN
MAN stresses that it is the first manufacturer in Europe’s commercial vehicle sector to publicly demonstrate working bidirectional charging technology as part of a research project. The company believes this kind of solution could become a more attractive business model toward the end of this decade, as energy markets, grid services, and logistics operations become increasingly interconnected.
