Daimler Buses have announced that the company aims to offer locally CO2-neutral vehicles. These will be based on batteries and hydrogen in every segment by 2030, with the initial focus on the core markets of Europe and Latin America.
By 2039, only locally CO2-neutral new vehicles are to be sold in the core market of Europe. In the city bus segment, this is to be the case in Europe as early as 2030. In addition to expanding its portfolio of CO2-neutral vehicles, Daimler Buses is also expanding its service offerings as a general contractor for customers’ complete electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
On the way to the worldwide electrification of passenger transportation, Daimler Buses plans to launch the first all-electric inter-city bus from 2025 and coaches with hydrogen-based fuel cell drive from the end of this decade.
In line with the dual-track strategy of its parent company Daimler Truck, Daimler Buses is focusing on both battery-electric and hydrogen-based technologies – because this is the only way to offer tailored zero-emission solutions for the diverse needs of its customers.
Till Oberwörder, Head of Daimler Buses, said: “As a worldwide leading bus manufacturer, our ambition is clear: We want to make a contribution to contending climate change and be a driver of the change in transportation that is needed to achieve this.
“To this end, we are pursuing a clear electrification strategy and putting buses with alternative drive technologies on the road in series production. We want to offer locally CO2-neutral powertrains for each of our segments in our most important markets by 2030 and therefore make a clear commitment.
“From 2030 at the latest, we will only offer CO2-neutral new vehicles in the city bus segment in Europe and will not invest in Euro VII technology. We are focusing our development efforts entirely on the zero-emission and fully electrically powered eCitaro.”
Starting in 2023, Daimler Buses will also equip its previously purely battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro city bus, which has been in series production since 2018, with a hydrogen-based fuel cell as a range extender.
Daimler Buses is thus adding a vehicle with a range of up to 250 miles (400km) to its all-electric product portfolio in the city bus segment. As a range extender variant, the powerful and locally CO2-neutral low-floor bus covers even demanding routes and nearly 100 percent of all transport operators’ range requirements.
Oberwörder continued, “We take a holistic view of electrification and go far beyond the vehicle itself. We supply our customers with electric mobility on a ‘turnkey’ basis, which means they get from us all the modules they need for a functioning electric bus service.
“We supply the buses, we plan the necessary infrastructure as well as the charging management, we manage the conversion of the depot and we train the staff. Our goal is for electro mobility to become an everyday reality in the bus business.”
In addition, Daimler Buses will offer the eCitaro with a new generation of high-performance batteries from the end of 2022. The high-energy lithium-ion batteries increase the capacity per battery cell by around 50 percent for the same weight and enable reliable ranges of around 280 kilometres (solo bus).
The batteries will be used in both the eCitaro, the eCitaro Range Extender and the recently launched all-electric chassis eO500U from Brazil.
The eCitaro is a successful model from Daimler Buses. It currently has more than 600 eCitaro electric buses now in daily use by European customers. In 2021, almost every second all-electric city bus newly sold in Germany will be from Daimler Buses.
Dr Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, said: “To achieve our climate goals, we need more zero-emission vehicles. We actively support public transport companies to decarbonise their fleets and provide them with the corresponding infrastructure.
“We have earmarked a total of 1.25 billion Euro for this purpose. Our goal: by 2030, every second city bus should be electrified.”
