MAN: The German Truck and Bus Maker Behind the Diesel Engine

MAN at a glance

Ironworks, engineering and the diesel engine (1758–1914)

MAN grew out of several 19th-century engineering firms in Augsburg and Nuremberg, and the group counts the St. Antony ironworks in Oberhausen, founded in 1758, among its roots. The engineering works in Augsburg built printing presses, steam engines and bridges, and in 1908 the merged business took the name Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg, shortened to MAN.

Its most famous early achievement was the diesel engine. Rudolf Diesel developed his engine at the Augsburg works from 1893, and in 1897 MAN presented the first fully functioning self-ignition engine. That invention would later make MAN one of the leading names in heavy-duty engines for ships, power stations and road vehicles.

The first MAN trucks and the diesel truck (1915–1939)

MAN entered the vehicle business during the First World War. In 1915 it formed a joint company with the Swiss truck maker Saurer, and that year 118 trucks left the Lindau plant and five came from Nuremberg. A total of 665 trucks were built from 1915 to 1918, mostly with a payload of around 2.5 tonnes.

After the war, MAN built special vehicles such as a municipal refuse truck with a hydraulic tipping body and, from 1921, its Ackerdiesel farm tractors, which it made until 1962. In 1924 MAN showed a truck with a direct-injection diesel engine, one of the first of its kind, and from 1925 its new five-tonne truck used a cardan shaft instead of chain drive. By the end of the decade the range covered payloads from 3 to 8 tonnes with diesel or petrol engines. During the Second World War production was turned over to military needs, and the factories were badly damaged by bombing.

Rebuilding and the Munich plant (1945–1966)

Production restarted slowly: 303 trucks were built in 1945 and 1,440 in 1950. The F8 of 1951 was MAN's first heavy truck after the war, and in the early 1950s MAN introduced turbocharged diesel engines with its spherical combustion chamber, known for low fuel use and quiet running. In 1955 work began on a new truck plant at Munich-Allach, which went on to build 100,000 trucks in its first ten years. The rounded "Ponton" bonneted trucks of 1956 and the 30,000th anniversary truck of 1960 belong to this period.

In the 1960s MAN adopted the model naming that is still familiar today: the first number gives the gross vehicle weight in tonnes, the second the engine output. A 19.280, for example, is a 19-tonne truck with about 206 kW (280 PS). Production rose to 13,844 trucks in 1965.

Saviem, Büssing and Volkswagen (1967–1993)

From 1967 to 1977 MAN cooperated with the French maker Saviem, part of the Renault group, and sold Saviem light and medium trucks under its own badge. In 1971 MAN took over Büssing of Braunschweig, a pioneer of German buses and trucks, and adopted the Büssing lion as its emblem. The lion still sits on every MAN grille.

The MAN 19.280 was named International Truck of the Year in 1978, the first of several such titles for the brand. A year later, MAN and Volkswagen launched a jointly developed range of light trucks from 6 to 10 tonnes, the G series, which was built until 1993 with 72,000 units produced. In 1990 MAN bought the truck business of Austria's Steyr, which later became its plant for light and medium trucks.

The TG range, Neoplan and global growth (1994–2017)

In the 1990s MAN replaced its F 90 and M 90 trucks with the F 2000 (1994) and M 2000 (1996). The next big step was the TGA of 2000, the first model of the "Trucknology Generation", with air-operated disc brakes, ABS and traction control, and automated gearboxes. In 2001 MAN bought Neoplan, the coach maker founded by Gottlob Auwärter, and combined it with its own bus business.

The light TGL and medium TGM followed in 2005, and the TGL was named Truck of the Year 2006. In autumn 2007, in Amsterdam, MAN presented the heavy MAN TGX and MAN TGS; the Kraków assembly plant in Poland opened the same year. MAN also won the truck class of the Dakar Rally in 2007. Abroad, MAN took a 25% stake in China's Sinotruk in 2009, and Sinotruk later launched the SITRAK brand using MAN technology. On 1 January 2011 MAN Nutzfahrzeuge was renamed MAN Truck & Bus. The TGE large van, based on the Volkswagen Crafter, arrived in 2017.

Traton, the new TGX and electric trucks (2018–2026)

Volkswagen gradually took control of MAN SE in the 2010s and grouped its truck brands, MAN, Scania, Navistar and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, under Traton. MAN Truck & Bus became a European company (SE) in March 2019, and MAN SE merged into Traton SE on 1 September 2021.

The latest generation of the TGX and TGS arrived in 2020 with new cabs, digital displays and the 12-speed TipMatic automated gearbox. Electrification began with the eTGM delivery truck and the Lion's City E electric city bus, and in 2024 MAN began series production of battery-electric heavy trucks. In the 1cars catalogue, the MAN TGX with 500 kW (680 PS) is third in the most powerful trucks ranking, behind two rivals of even higher output.

MAN timeline

Landmark MAN trucks and buses

Which MAN to choose: verdict

For long-haul work, the TGX is MAN's flagship, with the most powerful engines and the largest cabs; the TGS suits construction and regional haulage, and the TGL and TGM cover city distribution. Used buyers usually prefer later Euro 6 TGX and TGS trucks for their lower fuel use and higher resale value, while the battery-electric models suit fleets with depot charging and fixed routes. To compare trucks and other vehicles side by side, use the 1cars comparison tool, and browse the full range in the MAN catalogue.

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