MAN bus sales decreased 8% in Q1 2025 while incoming truck and bus orders increase 50%

MAN Truck & Bus closed the first quarter of 2025 reporting a -14% in terms of units sold (20,600) compared to Q1 2024. Bus sales were 1,381 vs 1.492 last year (-8%).

On the other hand, the figure concerning incoming orders is consolidating as “it was 50% higher than in the same quarter of the previous year”, in MAN CFO Inka Koljonen‘s words. In the whole 2024 Traton saw a 8% growth in bus orders as overall vehicle sales declined.

The group highlights that 50% of MAN city buses delivered in Europe in Q1 were electric.

Adjusted operating result fell -3.3%

MAN states the decrease of sales is “attributable to reduced deliveries of trucks and buses to the EU27+3 region“. As a result, sales revenue of 3.1 billion euros were also 12% below previous year’s level. At 143 million euros, the adjusted operating result fell significantly below the previous year’s figure (–136 million euros), primarily due to lower unit sales and higher factor costs. Accordingly, the adjusted operating return on sales reached 4.6% and was therefore 3.3 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year. 

The group shares that “the 380 buses and trucks sold in the first three months represent an increase of 178% compared to the first quarter of 2024, driven primarily by the continued strong demand for electric city buses. MAN also delivered a large part of the pre-series of the MAN eTruck to its customers in the first quarter. The start of series production of the eTruck at the production site in Munich is planned for June. In order to meet the rapidly increasing demand for batteries, MAN also launched its own battery series production for eTrucks and eBuses in Nuremberg in April – in which a total of around 250 million euros will be invested”.

MAN CFO Inka Koljonen says: “In the first quarter, we very clearly felt the effects of weak customer demand on our sales and earnings. In order to further improve our resilience, we must and will work even harder on optimizing our costs and cash generation. However, it is encouraging that demand has picked up again slightly. The positive trend in incoming orders is consolidating. It was 50% higher than in the same quarter of the previous year and is now for the first time at a level last seen at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. We are cautiously optimistic that the slightly positive growth trend can be sustained over the course of the year. We are therefore also preparing to phase out short-time working at our German locations.”