Shared Hydrogen Campus: MAN joins forces with Nuremberg Universities

• Working together on research, development, and initial and further training
• Foundation for successful transformation of what is currently the diesel engine site in Nuremberg

MAN Truck & Bus, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), and Nuremberg Tech (THN) have signed a cooperation agreement on the research and development of hydrogen-based vehicle drive systems. The unusual thing about this collaboration? For the first time, university academics and students are running a laboratory and test rigs for researching hydrogen technology jointly with a vehicle manufacturer’s developers directly at its plant premises. With this Hydrogen Campus, what right now is the MAN diesel engine plant is laying the foundation for a successful transformation towards alternative drives.

This concept has obvious advantages for all partners: researchers and engineers joining forces right at the MAN plant makes direct collaboration possible within the project team. Working together at the Hydrogen Campus and the infrastructure that is already available there also facilitate hands-on and applied research and development. The mutual transfer of expertise is set to speed up the research into hydrogen drives considerably.

Dr. Frederick Zohm, Executive Board member for Research & Development at MAN Truck & Bus SE, says: “As a commercial vehicle manufacturer, we are facing our industry’s biggest transformation since the invention of the diesel engine. Back then, MAN gave Rudolf Diesel the money and equipment he needed to develop his engine. These days, it is all about successfully industrializing alternative drive systems like battery-electric drives, fuel cells, or hydrogen combustion engines. We are once again getting involved in the basic development of new drive forms. I am really looking to working together with FAU and THN on the development of hydrogen drives.”