AUSTRIA
Wiener Linien, the city transport operator in Vienna, has ordered 60 12-metre Mercedes-Benz eCitaro vehicles, to be delivered between now and 2025, by which time the operator will have converted nine of its over 100 routes to eCitaro operation. The vehicles will have a battery capacity of 392 kWh which the manufacturer says will ensure a long operating range. Pantographs will enable rapid charging during the day.
An investment in associated infrastructure also includes a new e-competence centre in a former depot at Siebenhirten in the south of the Austrian capital by the end of 2023 which will accommodate around 50 e-buses. A photovoltaic system on the roof will supply electricity and waste heat from
the chargers will be used to heat the workshop building.
The operator’s Spetterbrücke depot will also be equipped with charging infrastructure, and three rapid charging stations will be constructed along the routes. Existing substations for the tram and metro networks will be used to supply the charging stations; Wiener Linien obtains all of its electricity from renewable energy sources.
Wiener Linien operates 127 bus routes with a combined route length of around 850 kilometres and serves around 4,230 stops. The backbones of its current fleet are the Mercedes-Benz Citaro and CapaCity, and following ongoing fleet renewal the operator said it was able to reduce the energy consumption of its bus fleet by a third between 2014 and 2020, even though it increased its mileage by 6% during the period. Among its fleet is the 50,000th Citaro bus built.
