MAN Truck & Bus is collaborating with its customers to run a demo fleet of 15 MAN Lion’s City E city buses as part of day-to-day operations, in order to gain comprehensive experience of how the vehicles operate in practice.
In mid-December, MAN Truck & Bus handed over the first two MAN Lion’s City E vehicles to the transport operators Hamburger Hochbahn AG and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH).
The two MAN Lion’s City E vehicles measure 12 metres in length and offer space for up to 88 passengers. The electric buses’ central motor is located on the rear axle. In the solobus, the all-electric driveline produces 160 kW up to a maximum of 240 kW. The energy for this comes from the modular batteries with 480 kWh of installed capacity; here, MAN can rely on the fully developed battery cell technology from the Group’s modular kit. What’s more, the sophisticated temperature management system ensures they are readily available, regardless of the season. As a result, the Lion’s City E reliably achieves a range of 200 km, and even up to 270 km in favourable conditions.
Dr Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of Hamburg, said: “We need new technologies and creative solutions in order to master the big challenges facing modern metropolises in the 21st Century – climate protection, mobility and digital transformation. These new buses form part of a strategic transformation in terms of mobility, which we will be pursuing in Hamburg over the coming years. Our city’s future transport system will be eco-friendly and convenient. We are significantly expanding our public transport system and will procure only emissions-free buses from 2020 onwards. Anyone travelling on the new electric buses in future will have a totally carbon-neutral trip, as the buses and trains in Hamburg’s transport network run on 100% green electricity.”
As part of the e-mobility roadmap, 2020 will see an additional 13 electric buses join practical testing as part of day-to-day operations, complementing the vehicles that have been handed over to HOCHBAHN and VHH. The demo fleet of 15 electric buses will then be on the road in customer operations in five European countries.