AUSTRIA
Austrian operator Postbus AG has taken delivery of 11 fully electric buses for use on services on contracted services in the southern Weinviertel region of Lower Austria. They are the first all-electric Mercedes-Benz buses in regular service on Austria’s roads, and will be used as part of a project to create a public transport hub connecting the railway stations at Gänserndorf, Wolkersdorf, and Mistelbach in the southern Weinviertel region. A regular bus service will operate at hourly intervals, with eight buses in constant operation on two routes.
At the same time, the batteries in two other buses will be being charged with up to 300kW in around 30 minutes in Gänserndorf, which the operator says avoids unproductive downtime. The buses are also charged overnight in Gänserndorf as well as in Mistelbach and Wolkersdorf, and will use 100% green power.
The buses are equipped with a passenger counting system, and two monitors for passenger information. In addition, all 11 vehicles have a pantograph for rapid intermediate charging of the high-voltage batteries. The eCitaros are also equipped with an Omniplus On bus data real-time communication module, so that the depot controller can constantly monitor all vehicle operating conditions such as battery charge level or remaining range, as well as all diagnostic messages. Postbus is also integrating vehicle data from the Daimler Buses cloud into its own fleet management systems.
In the last ten years, Postbus has added a total of 579 Mercedes-Benz buses to its fleet. Headquartered in Vienna, the company connects more than 1,700 municipalities throughout Austria with its route network.
