- MAN’s Lion’s City hybrid picks up another award for innovation
GERMANY The panel of judges for the international environmental prize “OekoGlobe 2011” awarded the MAN Lion’s City Hybrid bus third prize in the category “Vehicle innovations in public transport”. With its serial hybrid drive, the hybrid bus from MAN saves up to 30% on fuel and CO2 emissions.
Spokesman for the judges, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the CAR Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, announced the winners in Karlsruhe on September 6, 2011. The panel of judges consists of representatives from the automobile industry and transport and environmental policymakers.
The MAN Lion’s City Hybrid is already in day-to-day operation for several German and European transport authorities. Its external design, particularly the dome under which the electrical energy storage system is located, distinguishes the hybrid bus at a glance as a vehicle that is orientated towards the future. The vehicle’s design has already been recognised, having been honoured with the 2011 red dot award.
Urban transport is the ideal sphere of operation for buses equipped with serial hybrid drive. These solo vehicles of up to 18 tonnes are driven at low average speeds, accelerating no end of times to between 40 and 50 km/h, only to slow down again shortly afterwards for a stop. When they decelerate, conventional buses transform their great kinetic energy to heat: the energy is thus lost. The innovative MAN Lion’s City Hybrid recuperates its braking energy and transforms it into drive energy. With its automatic start-stop system, the hybrid bus is able to reduce its fuel consumption and emissions even further as city buses spend 25% to 40% of their operating time standing at bus stops or red lights.
