MOTEG Under Poclain: The EIC Accelerator E-Bus Compressor Maker

MOTEG GmbH, a maker of electric motors founded in 2014 by the motor engineer Dr. Siegfried Götz, set out to replace the belt-driven air compressors and steering pumps of diesel buses and trucks with compact electric units for battery and fuel-cell vehicles. The European Commission selected it in the 19 May 2020 cut-off of the EIC Accelerator pilot, the round reserved for Green Deal projects, as a grant-only winner listed under Flensburg; the list names no other company for the comAUX project. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €1,539,212.50 towards a total cost of €2,198,875, for a project that ran from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2022. Since 1 February 2024 the French hydraulics group Poclain has been MOTEG's main owner, according to MOTEG and Poclain, which said it had acquired "a controlling stake".

A Subsidiary With a New Boss

MOTEG is active, but no longer independent. Poclain, a family-owned group from Verberie in France with 2,300 staff at the time of the deal, announced the takeover in March 2024 and did not disclose the price, according to Power Progress, which put MOTEG's own workforce at 30. Poclain said it had concluded the financing round alongside HN Holding, a family-owned German industrial group, and the founder. The commercial register shows a merger-control filing for MOTEG and Poclain on 29 December 2023 and a capital increase to €89,606 on 15 February 2024, according to North Data.

On 7 May 2026 the register replaced Siegfried Götz as managing director with Charles Bataille (North Data), and MOTEG's imprint now names Bataille as CEO. A Charles Bataille, an Arts et Métiers engineer, joined Poclain's collegial presidency in 2025 alongside Laurent Bataille and Stéphanie Saboly-Bataille, according to La Gazette France; neither MOTEG nor Poclain has announced the change. MOTEG filed its accounts for 2025 in July 2026 (North Data), and in June 2026 its eAir V60 screw compressor and eServo pump were shown on the Poclain group's stand at IVT Expo in Cologne, according to Poclain.

What the Units Do

A diesel bus drives its air compressor, which feeds the brakes and suspension, and its power steering pump from the engine. A battery bus has no engine running, so each auxiliary needs its own electric drive. MOTEG builds these drives around its own permanent-magnet synchronous motors, which it says are up to two times smaller and lighter than the asynchronous motors used in most competing units, according to the project's final CORDIS report. The project summary claimed a third of the volume, half the weight, 68 dBA of noise and half the energy use of rival products. No independent test confirming these figures could be found.

The current range, according to MOTEG's website, covers the MMA motor series in variants up to 400 VAC, eAir compressors with up to 15 bar and up to 500 l/min at 10 bar, and eServo steering pumps and electro-hydraulics for buses and trucks. The company also holds the aviation quality standard EN 9100, and a 2023 company presentation lists motor development for Mercedes, Vincorion and Airbus Helicopters as reference projects.

Promised and Delivered Under comAUX

The project aimed to "validate, upscale and commercialise" the compAUX auxiliary units, with a focus on the hydraulic pump and the air compressor, the final CORDIS report says. It reports that the market for the 400V units for battery-electric vehicles grew faster than expected and that "8 customers" had been won for series production of the 400V range. The 24/48V range for hybrid and diesel vehicles moved more slowly: potential test customers had been contacted, but testing was "still impossible". The company moved into a new production site in Handewitt in July 2021, as its announcement and the register's address change (North Data) both show.

One plan was dropped. MOTEG had intended to certify to IATF 16949, the automotive quality standard, and ISO 14001, but the report says this would have raised its sales prices by about 35%, so it chose a minimum automotive quality system instead. Its website lists ISO 9001 and EN 9100 only.

1. 400V compressors and pumps in seriesDelivered8 series customers, per the CORDIS report; units still sold on the website.
2. Scaled productionDeliveredNew Handewitt site, July 2021.
3. 24/48V range for hybrid and diesel vehiclesNot deliveredNot tested by project end; no launch announced since.
4. IATF 16949 and ISO 14001 certificationDroppedReplaced by a minimum quality system.
5. Construction and farm machineryPartlyMotor-pump units in B-sample phase in 2025, sold through Poclain.

The report also projected CO2 savings of 130,815,000 kg a year in 2024 from units in operation, at 2,907 kg per vehicle. That arithmetic implies 45,000 units sold in 2024. MOTEG has never published unit sales, so the figure cannot be checked.

Growth Before the Takeover

In January 2023 MOTEG said its 2022 revenue was almost €4 million, its fourth doubling in a row, and that its customer base had grown by about 20%, according to a company release. Its 2023 presentation claimed more than 80 customers worldwide at the end of 2023, including 8 in the Netherlands and 7 in the United Kingdom. The register shows filed income statements from 2022 onwards (North Data), but the figures are not freely available, so the revenue claim could not be checked against the accounts. No named bus or truck maker has confirmed buying MOTEG units.

At IAA Transportation in September 2022 MOTEG launched the eAir EVO1 screw compressor for articulated buses and trucks with trailers, a new liquid-cooled motor series of 20 and 30 kW, and an expanded electro-hydraulic range, according to its review of the 2022 trade fairs, where it also showed an electrified concrete mixer from a customer at bauma.

Who Owned MOTEG

Before Poclain, the ownership changed more than once. In August 2019 Ceravis Incubation, the investment company of the shareholders of the Hirschvogel Automotive Group, became the second-largest shareholder behind Götz, according to MOTEG. The 2023 presentation shows Götz and HN Holding with 50.00% each, and the register lists HN Holding among the shareholders from April 2023 (North Data). How and when Ceravis left is not public. MOTEG is not in the EIC Fund's list of invested companies, which fits its grant-only award. North Data also records smaller public grants: €193,400 in 2017 for an autonomous rural bus project, €300,000 in COVID-19 state aid in 2020, and €149,779 in 2021 for the RUBIN concept, an open platform for electric, autonomous commercial vehicles. comAUX is its only EU research project on CORDIS.

Inside the Poclain Group

After 18 months under the new owner, MOTEG said in October 2025 that it had moved onto Poclain's customer management system and had started new motor and auxiliary projects, according to a MOTEG statement on PresseBox. A new motor generation of 10 to 65 kW at 48 to 850 VDC can be ordered with inverters from Emsiso, the group's Slovenian electronics maker, or with Poclain hydraulic pumps, and Poclain sells the plug-and-play drives to builders of construction and farm machinery. Compressors and motor-pump units with integrated inverters were in the B-sample phase, and "first orders" had been delivered. Poclain describes a combined e-mobility team of 100 experts across the three companies in a January 2025 article. The sources disagree on when Emsiso joined: Poclain and Power Progress say 2022, MOTEG's statement says 2023.

MOTEG also looked east. In a Xinhua Daily interview republished in February 2025, its Chinese sales director described setting up Moteg Electrical Engineering (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. in the Jiangning development zone as its first step into China. North Data, however, links a holding in a company of that name to MOTEG's accounts from 2016 onwards. The two records could not be reconciled, and no Chinese production has been announced.

Why It Matters for European Transport Policy

Heavy-duty vehicles cause more than a quarter of road transport greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, and their CO2 standards require cuts of 45% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, while 90% of new city buses must be zero-emission by 2030, according to the European Commission. The comAUX report built its case on the same rules. Every electric bus and truck needs a compressor and a steering pump, so the units sit in a supply chain that grows with the zero-emission fleet. With Poclain, the know-how stays under European ownership.

The Verdict

This article is based on public records and published statements, linked throughout. MOTEG and Poclain were not asked for comment.