Thanks to its economical and consistently practical drive concept the Citaro hybrid emerged a convincing winner in this year's Bus Euro test in Zagreb, sweeping aside competition from fully-electric rivals. In particular, the international jury of experts rated the vehicle ahead of the competition by some distance in the categories covering economy, innovation, quality and user-friendliness.

Special attention was drawn to the fact that the new hybrid technology is offered with the choice of either a diesel or a petrol engine for all models across an extremely wide range of urban buses. With this technology the already exceptionally economical combustion engines from Mercedes-Benz benefit from a further significant increase in efficiency.

Dortmund, 12 July 2018

Stuttgart / Dortmund - Three good reasons for the Mercedes‑Benz minibus specialists in Dortmund to celebrate: A complete new generation of minibuses, based on the new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and featuring a unique range of technology modules, is currently lining up for the start. At the same time, the 25 000^th minibus has just been handed over. And on top of that, there's a birthday for the minibuses sporting the three-pointed star: It is now 20 years since Daimler joined forces with its bus and coach subsidiary EvoBus to enter the minibus segment, in a cooperation that can be counted as an extraordinary success story.

The new Mercedes‑Benz Sprinter forms the basis for a totally new generation of the successful minibuses bearing the three-pointed star. As before, they comprise the model series Sprinter City, Sprinter Transfer, Sprinter Mobility and Sprinter Travel. The names stand for operations in line service, as a versatile shuttle bus, for transport of passengers with limited mobility, and for tourist transport.

A stand-out role is played here by the all-new Sprinter City 75 with its exclusive technology. At 8.5 metres long, this regular-service bus has room for up to 38 passengers and features a unique frame structure. Its neat bodywork conceals some unrivalled technology. A special long wheelbase of 5095 mm, for example, provides the basis for a spacious low-floor platform between the axles. This can be put to flexible use with tip-up seats, wheelchair and pram bays, seating with a quick-change securing system or as standing space. Just as important is the heavy-duty rear axle, developed and manufactured exclusively for the Mercedes‑Benz minibuses. Its greater load-carrying capacity of 5.0 t provides the basis for a permissible gross vehicle weight of 6.8 t. Alongside the new Sprinter City 75 is the somewhat more compact Sprinter City 45.

The versatile Sprinter Transfer goes to the start with a comprehensive line-up. Its four models range from the 5.9-metre-long Sprinter Transfer 23 to the 7.7‑metre Sprinter Transfer 55, which features an extended rear end that complements the design perfectly. The Sprinter Mobility is the model series aimed specifically at carrying passengers with restricted mobility. The compact Sprinter Mobility 23 benefits from having a permissible gross vehicle weight of just 3.5 t. The Sprinter Mobility 45 deserves particular attention: a new raised floor has been added over the wheel arches. This allows two wheelchairs to stand alongside each other at the level of the rear axle.

The model start-up of the new minibuses will be staggered and will reflect the availability of the Sprinter: It will start later this year with the Sprinter Transfer 23 and 35, the Sprinter Mobility 23 and the completely re-engineered Sprinter City 75. The rest of the models in these series will follow next year, as will all models of the Sprinter Travel. Once the model changeover is complete, by autumn of 2019, the product range will comprise more than 20 left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models.

As well as reaching this special milestone, the minibuses from Mercedes‑Benz are celebrating a "round" birthday: It is now 20 years since EvoBus began its activities in this segment by taking a significant share in the minibus manufacturer Karl Koch GmbH in Mudersbach near Siegen, thereby becoming the leader in this sector. Full acquisition of the business and the establishment of Mercedes-Benz Minibus GmbH, based in Dortmund, followed in 2004.

Minibus production in Dortmund had in fact gradually been ramped up since 2000 and has now been completely concentrated on the plant there for the past ten years. Extended several times in the intervening years, the plant now employs around 260 people, producing between 1200 and 1600 vehicles a year on three body-shell lines and four assembly lines. This makes Mercedes-Benz the European market leader for minibuses over 3.5 t gross vehicle weight rating.

The minibuses these days are sold to more than 40 countries. The largest market is western Europe, but customers in Australia, South-East Asia and the Middle East also form part of the regular customer base.

Apart from the specific advantages of the individual products, the minibus specialists' recipe for success includes industrial production in Dortmund and close links to the development and production areas for the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter as the base model. All conversion work is checked and approved by the factory. All production processes meet the same high quality standards as apply for all Mercedes-Benz vans. EvoBus supports minibus customers and their buses after the purchase just as intensively as it does with full-size buses. From sales, production and service to subsequent recycling – in the case of the minibuses bearing the three-pointed star, everything is handled by a single company.

It will be easy to spot the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro in the city in the future: It is based on the familiar looks of the Citaro, but takes up elements from the design idiom of the revolutionary Mercedes‑Benz Future Bus concept vehicle, thus transporting the unmistakable design of the Citaro into the future. This is particularly evident in the face of the eCitaro. Overall, the eCitaro sports a solid appearance with clearly drawn contours. Optical tricks lend the eCitaro perfect proportions and make it seem light.

The first Mercedes-Benz eCitaro will be delivered at the end of the year and will go into practical operations in the context of a so-called customer-oriented driving test. The Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH, operator of the local public transport system in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region, signed a corresponding declaration of intent with the Daimler subsidiary EvoBus GmbH. Series production of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro with all-electric drive will then begin at the end of the year at the Mannheim bus plant. The transport operators in Hamburg and Berlin have already ordered a total of 35 eCitaro buses.

In order to shape the future of mobility, Daimler Buses is investing around 200 million euro in the implementation of the CASE strategy, and that is just up until 2020. CASE at Daimler stands for the future topics of connectivity (Connected), autonomous driving (Autonomous), flexible use (Shared & Services) and electric powertrains (Electric). A significant proportion is going toward building up competencies, and into development and production of electric buses. Series production of the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro will take place in the Mannheim production plant. The development team based in Neu-Ulm will also be increasingly dedicating themselves to semi-automated and automated driving in future.

The platform of the new Mercedes‑Benz eCitaro is the Citaro, the brand’s best-selling city bus with more than 50 000 units sold. Lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of up to about 243 kWh provide the power for the eCitaro.They are modular in design: the batteries are divided between as many as ten modules, each supplying around 25 kWh. In addition to two battery modules on the vehicle roof, the standard equipment includes four battery modules in the rear of the bus. Depending upon customer requirements, another two or four battery modules are mounted on the roof of the eCitaro. With a minimum of six and up to a maximum of ten possible battery modules, transport operators can adapt their usage and charging strategy very precisely to individual needs.

With the maximum complement of ten battery modules, the eCitaro in standard specification weighs around 13.44 tonnes. In conjunction with a gross vehicle weight rating of 19.5 tonnes, this corresponds to a payload of more than six tonnes or around 88 passengers – in line with what is needed in practice even during rush hour.

The eCitaro's charging technology also allows it to adjust to the individual wishes and requirements of the transport operators. For the start of series production, plug-in charging is intended. To this end, the city bus has a connection for a Combo 2 plug. If opportunity charging is required to extend the range, there will also be an option to charge the eCitaro via a pantograph in future.

However, the battery capacity alone provides little indication of the actual performance capability and, above all, the range of an all-electric city bus - the true measure is that of energy consumption. In the case of a city bus, this is impacted significantly by climatic conditions and consequently by the need to cool and, above all, to heat the interior. The engineers have therefore put a considerable amount of thought into the issue of thermal management. It is one of the outstanding features of the eCitaro and has been honed and refined in every detail: compared with the current Citaro with combustion engine, the energy requirement for heating, ventilation and climate control has fallen by about 40 percent. This exceptional energy efficiency provides the basis for the eCitaro's practical operating range – even under unfavourable conditions.

Operating range figures for all-electric-powered city buses are often difficult to compare since reference values can be missing and the figures have often been calculated under ideal conditions. Things are different with the eCitaro: In the interests of reliable data, Mercedes-Benz prefers to consider a "worst-case scenario" and therefore takes its direction from the challenging standardised city driving cycle known as SORT2. To make things even trickier, Mercedes‑Benz also adds the energy requirements of the ancillary consumers into the equation. According to SORT2, the Citaro with a full complement of batteries should be able to achieve an operating range of around 150 kilometres in the summer. In other words, it is already possible to serve some sub-networks within the daily workload of a city bus without opportunity charging. Without opportunity charging, the eCitaro already covers about one third of all requirements of the transport operators. Under ideal conditions, the eCitaro even drives around 250 kilometres without opportunity charging.

The new Mercedes-Benz eCitaro of the year 2018 is the kick-off for an innovation initiative with a clear strategy aimed at the swift and above all practical electrification of public transit with buses in cities and population centres. The eCitaro will be able to replace city buses powered by a combustion engine nearly completely in just a few years.

Without opportunity charging, the new eCitaro of the year 2018 already covers about 30 percent of all requirements of the transport operators. Since the development of battery technology is progressing at a rapid pace, the eCitaro is already designed to be transitioned to the future battery technology. The next generation of the eCitaro will then cover around 50 percent of all applications. This greater battery capacity also makes a meaningful introduction of an eCitaro G articulated bus with a reasonable range possible. Additional development steps are already mapped out, including the use of so-called solid-state batteries, which are characterised by a particularly long service life as well as high energy density. With a rated battery capacity of about 400 kWh in the solo bus and even more in the articulated bus, the eCitaro will then meet about 70 percent of all requirements without opportunity charging.

Subsequently, the range of the eCitaro will be increased yet again by a range extender in the form of a fuel cell that generates electricity. It will be designed to allow the eCitaro to fulfil nearly 100 percent of all requirements on city buses. This technology eliminates the need for opportunity charging and the complex infrastructure required for it in almost all cases – the eCitaro will be able to replace city buses with combustion engine virtually one to one.

The development of a marketable city bus transport system using solely battery power takes place via the "SAEBEL" project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of the electric mobility funding policy with a total of 1.85 million euro. The implementation of the funding policy is being coordinated by NOW, the German "National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel-Cell Technology". Results of the various funding activities of the BMVI in the context of local public transport are combined within the programme support research as part of the working group "Innovative Powertrains Bus". To accelerate the market development for the eCitaro with fuel-cell technology as a range extender, Daimler Buses aims for funding as part of the German "National Innovation Programme - Hydrogen and Fuel-Cell Technology" (NIP).

Mercedes-Benz and Setra again set standards in active safety at the 2018 IAA with assistance systems. Active Brake Assist 4 for touring coaches is the first ever brake assist system that also brakes for pedestrians. It will become standard equipment on the touring coaches from Mercedes-Benz and Setra in 2019. Preventive Brake Assist is the first active brake assist system ever for city buses. Finally, Sideguard Assist is the first assistance system to warn of pedestrians, cyclists and stationary obstacles when turning. It is available for the entire range of city buses and touring coaches from Mercedes-Benz and Setra. All three assistance systems unburden the driver in his work and protect more vulnerable road users. All three can save lives.

The new Mercedes‑Benz Sprinter forms the basis for a likewise totally new generation of the successful minibuses bearing the three-pointed star. As before, they comprise the model series Sprinter City, Sprinter Transfer, Sprinter Mobility and Sprinter Travel, and will be launched successively. The names stand for operations in line service, as a versatile shuttle bus, for transport of passengers with limited mobility, and for tourist transport. As a result, the Sprinter as a minibus covers all conceivable types of operations. The Sprinter City 75 with exclusive technology plays a prominent role: Thanks to an extended wheelbase, the compact city bus with discreet skeleton body offers a large low-floor platform and due to its exclusive high-load rear axle manages a high passenger capacity.

Overall, the Citaro Euro VI convinces with a wealth of innovative technical details and is known for its outstanding efficiency. Not for nothing is it the bestselling Mercedes-Benz city bus of all time. But the high economy is not only down to the efficient Euro VI engines. An intelligent "energy collector", the so-called recuperation module, saves electricity in overrun mode and holds it ready for auxiliary consumers. When starting the bus the module then specifically feeds the energy to the auxiliary consumers. This active support of the battery/alternator management relieves the drive system and contributes towards the high efficiency of the classic city bus.

The local transport services of Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG is a part of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, one of the largest transport associations in Europe. Around 135 million passengers use the DSW21 services each year.

Mannheim, 26 June 2018

Stuttgart/Mannheim – On 26 June Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (RNV) took charge of the first four of a total of seven Citaro hybrid vehicles at the Mannheim bus depot. Rüdiger Kappel (on the left in the image), head of sales for fleets in Germany, handed over the symbolic key of the new hybrid fleet to Markus Wolf, head of motor vehicles at RNV Mannheim. Procuring the new, environmentally friendly Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrids is one of the immediate measures RNV has taken to improve the air quality in the cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Heidelberg in the south west of Germany.

The hybrid components significantly reduce the emissions of Citaro city buses to thus make the model even more environmentally friendly and interesting for municipalities and cities pursuing an active environmental policy. In this process, an electric motor positioned between engine and automatic transmission uses the energy recovered during coasting or braking to support the diesel engine with additional torque. Consequently, the combustion engine must generate significantly lower levels of output during acceleration or when moving off thanks to the electric support and this saves fuel and cuts emissions.

All seven Citaro hybrid vehicles feature identical equipment including tactile grab bars at doors one and two as well as a mechanically folding ramp. Public transport operators spared three rows of seats to gain a large area in the centre of the vehicle for two wheelchairs that can also be used for special purposes, such as carrying bicycles or pushchairs.

RNV is relying on the new "Omniplus Uptime" telematics system to implement a fleet management system. "Omniplus Uptime" permanently monitors and analyses vehicle data to derive suggested actions. This boosts vehicle availability and optimises maintenance and service processes.

Till Oberwörder, head of Daimler Buses: "We are delighted that Germany's largest bus operator is also relying on Mercedes-Benz within the context of fully electrically driven buses. And the company is doing so even before the official première of the new bus."
The 15 buses will be delivered from the first quarter of 2019. The order from Berlin is already the third order for the new city bus which will be celebrating its world première at Daimler Buses' IAA preview in July.

The Citaro for Berlin features ten battery modules. They are charged at the depot using plugs. The vehicles are driven using an E-axle featuring electric motors near the wheel hubs. Highly developed thermal management with high-tech components, such as a heat pump, cut the energy consumption.

In the passenger compartment the fully electrically driven Citaro is identical to its conventionally driven equivalent. The BVG versions of the electric buses bearing the star feature ample equipment. There are dedicated screens to inform passengers with reduced mobility who sit with their backs to the direction of travel. Most of all persons with visual impairments will benefit from tactile grab bars featuring a grooved profile.

A new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is always also the occasion for a new generation of minibuses bearing the star. The best-seller amongst vans in its category is ideally suited as a platform for bodies and conversions. The next Sprinter is already available to order and so minibus developers are intensively working on new models.

Without a doubt, the new minibus designs will also benefit from the numerous cockpit variants, safety and assistance systems as well as the many advantages of the new sprinter.

The doors indicate that the illustrated minibus is from the Sprinter City model series for scheduled-service operation. It must be the large version – maybe the successor of the previous version of the three-axle Sprinter 77? I'm sure that we will see clearly soon.

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe BVG deploy around 1,400 buses on their 154 bus routes, including around 1,000 solo and articulated buses, more than 300 of which already bear the star. BVG buses carried 441 million passengers last year. Mercedes-Benz buses and predecessor makes can look back on a long tradition in Berlin: the first buses on a Daimler basis already travelled around the German capital in 1905 on behalf of "Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus Aktien Gesellschaft" (ABOAG), a predecessor of today's Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Berlin's local transport company.

With more than 50 000 vehicles the Citaro is the city bus that has been sold most throughout the world. It is used in almost all European countries and cities. Introduced in 1997, 2011 saw the launch of the second generation. The range includes solo and articulated buses, city as well as inter-city buses, namely the Low Entry Citaro LE. The four-axle, CapaCity large-capacity bus is based on the Citaro. The Citaro is a role model in its vehicle category in many respects. It was the first city bus that complied with the currently most stringent Euro VI emissions standard. The model has been available for delivery since 2012. The Citaro is not only full of energy in terms of its production figures: the efficient Citaro hybrid and the fully electrically driven Citaro represent the most recent developments with extraordinary properties. It will already be launched in series production as early as this year.

Hamburg, 3 May 2018

Stuttgart/Hamburg - Its official world première is still to come, yet the first large-scale order has already been placed: Mercedes-Benz delivers 20 new, fully electrically driven Citaro city buses to Hamburger Hochbahn AG, the city's local transport company. The first two vehicles will already be handed over this year.

Till Oberwörder, head of Daimler Buses: "the first large-scale order of our electrically driven, zero-emission Citaro has been placed even before its official première - this underlines transport companies' trust in our electric mobility concept in local transport. With the Citaro we are launching an essential component on the way to local, zero-emissions bus transport on the market."

Hamburger Hochbahn AG, Hamburg's local transport company, agrees as it considers the city buses a milestone on the way to a green bus fleet. If possible, Hamburger Hochbahn AG will exclusively procure zero-emission buses from 2020.

The new, fully electrically driven Citaro will be launched in series production as early as this year. It most of all convinces with maximum energy efficiency, based on a unique thermal management, reducing energy consumption and thus boosting the range. As a result, an energy-saving heat pump is responsible for heating the passenger compartment. The vehicle is driven by a rear axle featuring motors installed in the vicinity of the wheel hubs.

The modular structure of its batteries is also typical for the Citaro. They provide an overall capacity of up to 243 kWh. The batteries are cooled to an ideal temperature, resulting in maximum charge, maximum usable capacity and a long service life. Batteries are charged at the depot using connectors. After the Citaro's series introduction additional variants for intermediate charging en route will also be available.

The new, fully electrically driven city bus is based on the worldwide best-seller Mercedes-Benz Citaro. In the meantime, the vehicle's two generations have sold more than 50,000 units and they are used in almost all cities throughout western and central Europe, excelling on several continents.

Hamburger Hochbahn AG operates 111 routes with 1237 stops and around 1000 buses. The company transports around 212 million passengers each year.

Mercedes-Benz and Hamburger Hochbahn AG can look back on a very long and successful collaboration. In 1997, the Hamburg-based company was one of the first customers to purchase the first generation of the revolutionary Mercedes-Benz Citaro low-floor city bus. Mercedes-Benz has delivered more than 1000 Citaro to Hamburg to date. Be it the joint development of the articulated, rear-engined bus more than 40 years ago or the recent deployment of Citaro FuelCELL and FuelCELL Hybrid in Hamburg – 
Mercedes-Benz and Hamburger Hochbahn AG drive forward innovative technology together.

With low-emission and in future locally emission-free city buses Mercedes-Benz offers the answers to the demands for an environmentally friendly public transport market. All are based on the global bestseller Citaro, the first city bus in the world with the currently strictest emission standard Euro VI in 2012. The Citaro hybrid fully becomes a low-emission bus with once again lowered fuel consumption. And the gas-powered Citaro NGT drives practically CO2-neutrally with organic natural gas. The fully electricity powered Citaro now completes the step from low-emission bus to zero-emission bus.

Its Drive is supported on an electrical portal axle with electric motors on the wheel hubs. The peak performance of the motors totals 2 x 125 kW, the torque 2 x 485 Nm. It is, depending on the system, fully available from the start and secures an appropriate dynamism even when fully loaded.

Lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of up to around 243 kWh take over the power supply. They divide themselves into a maximum of ten modules. Alongside two high-voltage battery modules on the roof four modules in the rear belong to the standard equipment. Depending on customer requirements, two or four further high-voltage battery modules can be added to the roof.

The charging technology is also flexible. For the series introduction, charging via Combo-2 plugs is intended. If recharging is required to extend the range, the Citaro can in future also optionally be charged by current collector. The Citaro therefore covers all conventional variants.

With this intelligent module concept of battery and charging technology Mercedes-Benz opens up the opportunity for the transport operators to adjust the Citaro precisely to the individual requirements of the company or even individual routes.

The energy consumption of a fully electrically powered city bus is decisively influenced by the cooling and, above all, the heating of the large interior. That's why thermal management is included in the outstanding features of the Citaro: its exceptional energy efficiency forms the basis for a practical range of the Citaro.

The passenger compartment of the Citaro is heated by a heat pump, saving energy. Plus, the usual sidewall heaters with blowers and the front heater. All heat-producing components are networked with one another in order to reduce the energy requirement for their cooling to a minimum. The roof-mounted air conditioning system is additionally used as a heat pump at cold times of year. Further advantages are offered by the use of the CO2 refrigerant. It is convincing with a particularly efficient use of the heat pump even at very low temperatures.

A further plus: even during the charging of the batteries in the depot the vehicle interior can be pre and even over-conditioned to the desired temperature. This allows the bus to already start heated or cooled.

For the range specification Mercedes-Benz prefers a worst case scenario and orientates itself by the demanding standardised SORT2 urban cycle. According to it, the Citaro with batteries at full capacity can achieve a range of around 150 kilometres in the summer. This allows partial networks in the daily workload of a city bus to be operated without recharging already today.