VHH orders 48 e-buses from MAN (out of a 100-units framework agreement)

VHH is ordering up to to 100 electric buses from MAN Truck & Bus for operations in Hamburg. With the framework agreement for the delivery of the Lion’s City 12 E, MAN was able to win four of eight lots in VHH’s current e-bus tender, the manufacturer states.

VHH orders up to 100 e-buses for Hamburg

Since 2020, the company has been ordering only buses with zero-emission drives for its Hamburg service area. At the end of 2019, the transport company had ordered the first 17 MAN Lion’s City 12 E vehicles. The next order was for a further 20 electric buses. In 2022, VHH opted for MAN e-buses for the third time: the order included 30 electric solo buses and 6 electric articulated buses.

VHH has already called for the first 48 e-buses from the new framework agreement with MAN. Delivery of the vehicles is scheduled for the turn of the year 2023/2024.

The MAN e-buses that have now been called up, with a length of 12 metres, have three doors. The vehicles are each equipped with six battery packs with a total output of 480 kilowatt hours. CO2 air conditioning system is implemented. The compact rooftop unit is operated with climate-neutral carbon dioxide (R744) instead of the conventional refrigerant R134a.

MAN zero emission buses for Hamburg, again

“Thanks to their sustainability, comfort and generous space, the e-buses encourage people to use public transport. After all, they enable them to get to their destination in an environmentally friendly, comfortable and particularly quiet way,” says Heinz Kiess, Head of Product Marketing Bus at MAN Truck & Bus. “Our goal is quite clearly to put even more electric buses on the road: by 2025, half of our new city buses will be powered locally emission-free. And we expect that just five years later, 90 per cent of our buses will be battery-powered,” says Kiess.

“We have a clear vision in mind: in the 2030s, we want to be locally emission-free on the road in the Hamburg metropolitan region. Innovative vehicles are an important building block in this process. We are working very intensively with all the manufacturers who supply us. Topics such as availability and range have gained momentum. We are looking forward to continuing on this path together,” says VHH Managing Director Dr Lorenz Kasch.

“We are very pleased that VHH has once again opted for buses from MAN. After all, it shows how satisfied the company is with our innovative and reliable electric vehicles,” says Friedrich Baumann, Executive Board Member for Sales and Customer Solutions at MAN Truck & Bus.