Stuttgart / São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. Mercedes-Benz do Brasil has presented the fully electric eO500U bus chassis. The bus chassis was specially designed for Latin American cities and will be produced in São Bernardo do Campo, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, from 2022 on.
Sustainable, fully electric and quiet
With the eO500U, Mercedes-Benz is now entering the era of electromobility for buses in Latin America. The battery-powered city bus stands for environmentally friendly, locally emission-free local public transport and contributes to air pollution control and thus to increasing the quality of life in cities. The fully electric bus chassis has a range of up to 250 kilometers. The battery charging system of the eO500U is a plug-in system with the same technological standard that Daimler Buses has installed in the fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro city bus. A full charge of the high-voltage batteries takes 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”, says Gustav Tuschen, Head of Product Engineering and Purchasing Daimler Buses.
Focus on Latin America: launch in 2022
The fully electric eO500U bus chassis will be produced in the Brazilian plant in São Bernardo do Campo from 2022 on and launched in Brazil and in other selected Latin American countries. If there is a corresponding customer interest, use outside of Latin America is also conceivable. The eO500U is a model from the O-500 series, which is also the basis for the Mercedes-Benz Super Padron city bus. The low-floor vehicle can accommodate city bus bodies with a length of up to 13.2 meters and offers space for up to 86 passengers. It is driven by wheel hub motors on the rear axle. Taking into account the experience with the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro, the chassis was completely developed in Brazil and put through intensive tests by engineers from Daimler Buses in Germany and Brazil.
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil is the largest bus and truck manufacturer in Latin America. The bus plant in São Bernardo do Campo was opened in 1956 and specializes in the development and production of bus chassis.