Kuchta,

Senior Vice President Product & Bus Sales - MAN Truck & Bus

Meeting with Rudi Kuchta at the IAA Transportation in Hannover, he had just received the international Bus of the Year (IBOY) 2023 award for the MAN Lion’s City E. The selection of the winner was made following driving tests earlier this year in Limerick at the Bus Euro Test event, hosted by Fleet Bus & Coach. For the occasion, the Lion’s City E made the trip to Limerick from Munich by road, a journey of 2,500km on electric power. Rudi is a quietly spoken man, but the excitement of leading a team to winning the award was very obvious.

sM. MaN has just been awarded iBoY 2023 award, how significant is this accolade to the company?

RK. Very significant. The bus made an impressive appearance in Limerick in May and did so from the start. After all, the all-electric city bus had completed the 2,500 km journey from Germany to Ireland on its own power. The award is a testament to the outstanding work done by the entire MAN Truck & Bus team

Bottom line, will this boost sales for MaN?

Yes of course, we are very confident that our (electric) e-bus sales will improve dramatically in the coming years. Currently we have orders for over 1,000 e-buses. Last year just over 6% of our city bus sales were electric, and we expect that figure to increase 50% by 2025. We are very confident about the increase in public transport in terms of extra services and a switch to electric have the supply chain issues experienced during Covid abated somewhat?

Pretty much yes, like all manufacturers we had some downtime and production issues. Turkey effectively closed for six weeks; this had a big knock on effect. From now on we will try to have multiple suppliers for each product and so eliminate any future shortages that could arise, but the main thing is that we do not see any supply issues at the moment how is the coach side of the industry looking?

Well this is a different story. Coach sales are down and a lot slower to recover. While they have come back somewhat, the sector is still on shaky ground. It is difficult to predict what may happen here. With people becoming more conscious of their carbon footprint there could be a move from flying, back to travel by road where it is practical, who knows? Coach sales is still is an important segment for us and we will always help our customers with support in terms of product and service. how soon will there be a viable alternative to diesel for coaches? do you think a time will come when charging a bus will be as simple as filling it with diesel? finally the MaN Truck & Bus brands are well established in ireland, will you try to expand the range on offer?

Very difficult to say. There will be some uncertainty until a decision is made around the introduction of Euro 7. For what may be a short term solution, it will put considerable expense on manufactures and operators. We may come with an electric coach in the future, but the industry needs some security in terms of regulation before too much development takes place.

I hope so, but from when the first battery buses were launched, there have been significant improvements in both range and charging efficiencies. If these efficiencies continue to develop I have no doubt we will see it in the future.

Yes, we are proud of our record in Ireland and will always look at opportunities to expand in any market. Some of our bus models are not built in RHD (Right Hand Drive) but we always respond to the demands of a market and try to extend our reach there. Our newly designed e-bus gives us a chance to explore the possibility of RHD and possibly even look at using a chassis option, but nothing is certain.

Text: Sean Murtagh - sean@fleet.ie