MAN Lion’s City E, the European roadshow continues in 2021. A delivery in Luxembourg
4 MAN Lion’s City E buses have started scheduled operation for Voyages Emile Weber, in Luxembourg. Also, Belgian operator Hansea is now testing an electric bus from MAN demo fleet for a year. MAN’s electric buses are still touring Europe: the roadshow enters its second round, the manufacturer says. MAN Lion’s City E, the articulated version soon […]
4 MAN Lion’s City E buses have started scheduled operation for Voyages Emile Weber, in Luxembourg. Also, Belgian operator Hansea is now testing an electric bus from MAN demo fleet for a year. MAN’s electric buses are still touring Europe: the roadshow enters its second round, the manufacturer says.
MAN Lion’s City E, the articulated version soon in series production
In October 2020, series production of battery-electric city buses was launched at MAN’s plant in Starachowice, Poland. It began with the 12-metre solo version: the Lion’s City 12 E. The first customer vehicles rolled off the production line destined for German operator Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg Holstein (VHH); others will follow to fulfil major orders from Malmö and Nuremberg.
The fully-electric, articulated Lion’s City 18 E will enter series production in April 2021, offering space for up to 120 passengers – an increase on the solobus’ 88. The power for the fully electric driveline comes from the batteries on the vehicle roof, which have an installed capacity of 480 kWh (solo) and 640 kWh (articulated bus). As such, the electric buses boast a range of 200 km – and up to 270 km in favourable conditions – throughout the batteries’ service life, the bus builder says.
Four Lion’s City E for Voyages Emile Weber
A batch of four 12-metre-long electric city buses were ordered by Voyages Emile Weber and are used by its subsidiary Voyages Ecker in the north of Luxembourg City. “Voyages Emile Weber is one of several companies that we teamed up with to establish an innovation partnership a few years back. The goal was, and still is, to join forces and make alternative drive technologies a firm fixture of public transport” says Rudi Kuchta, Head of Business Unit Bus at MAN Truck & Bus.
MAN Lion’s City electric bus roadshow
As of this year, the MAN Lion’s City E can also be found on the streets of Belgium. Transportation company Hansea put the electric bus from MAN Truck & Bus’ demo fleet through its paces over the space of a year. Its daily routine sees it running on Antwerp’s line 36 between Rooseveltplaats and Linkeroever.
Numerous demo vehicles have been in scheduled operation since last year, as set out in MAN’s e-mobility roadmap. These include vehicles used for longer-term field trials in Hamburg, Munich, and Wolfsburg.
The interest in these innovative electric buses is demonstrated by the response to the roadshow organized by MAN Truck & Bus, with updates posted on its online channels under #ElectrifyingEurope: 78 stops, 15 European countries, and 141 customer touchpoints in 2020.
To give even more customers and transportation companies throughout Europe a chance to test the electric bus, a second round of the roadshow will begin in 2021, featuring maiden voyages in Russia, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Lithuania, and elsewhere. “It’s important to us that as many companies and potential customers as possible get to drive our MAN Lion’s City E in person and experience just how exciting e-mobility can be,” Kuchta explains.
