BRAZIL
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil has unveiled its new fully electric eO500U bus chassis. The chassis has been specially designed for use in Latin American cities and will be produced in São Bernardo do Campo, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, from 2022.
The eO500U gives Mercedes-Benz an electric chassis option for buses in the Latin American market. The manufacturer said it’s new battery-powered city bus ‘stands for environmentally friendly, locally emission-free local public transport’ and contributes to reduced air pollution and to increasing the quality of life in cities. The chassis offers a range of up to 250 kilometres and uses a plug-in battery charging system of the same technological standard that Daimler Buses has installed in its eCitaro city bus. A full charge of the high-voltage batteries is said to take around three hours.
“The fully electric eO500U bus chassis is part of our global development strategy for electromobility. Our goal is to make local public transport even more environmentally friendly and to improve the quality of life in cities”, said Gustav Tuschen, Head of Product Engineering
and Purchasing at Daimler Buses.
The eO500U chassis will be produced in the manufacturer’s Brazilian plant in São Bernardo do Campo from 2022 and launched in Brazil and in other selected Latin American countries. If there is a corresponding customer interest, Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler Buses said that use outside of Latin America is also conceivable. The eO500U forms part of the company’s O-500 series, which is also the basis for the Mercedes-Benz Super Padron city bus. The new low-floor electric vehicle can accommodate city bus bodies with a length of up to 13.2 metres and offers space for up to 86 passengers. It is driven by wheel hub motors on the rear axle.
Following on from experience with the eCitaro in Europe, the new chassis has been developed locally and put through intensive tests by engineers from Daimler Buses in Germany and Brazil.
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil is one of the largest bus and truck manufacturers in Latin America. Its bus plant in São Bernardo do Campo was opened in 1956 and specialises in the development and production of bus chassis
