On 30 August 2024 Kreisverkehrsbetriebe Saarlouis GmbH (KVS) invited guests to the presentation of its first 15 battery-electric buses at its depot on Oberförstereistraße. On show were 15 twelve-metre-long type 2.2 Ebusco buses, which are now in operation on KVS routes.
Although they are not the first battery electric buses in small German Federal State of Saarland, the public transport company from the neighbouring town of Völklingen was quicker. VDL Citea SLF 120/electric e-buses started service there in 2021.
But Saarlouis is now the second company to start. The state capital of Saarbrücken will soon follow with electric buses. In Saarbrücken, however, a completely different technology has been chosen: hydrogen fuel cell buses will be used here. These will be supplied by a ‘newcomer’ to the German market: the Northern Irish bus manufacturer Wrightbus. The buses will be of the ‘Kite Hydroliner FCEV’ type. Saarbrücken is not the only company to have opted for hydrogen buses from Wrightbus. Other customers include Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK), which is expecting its first 20 Wrightbuses shortly, ‘west’ from Geilenkirchen on the Dutch border, and ‘Cottbusverkehr’ from the Brandenburg city of Cottbus. In short, Wrightbus has around 100 hydrogen buses on its order books for the German market.
But let’s return to Saarlouis. The district of Saarlouis wants to become a climate-neutral region by 2050. Pollutant emissions into the environment are to be eliminated or offset.
The 15 new KVS battery-powered buses are helping to achieve this goal. And they won’t be alone for long: the next five battery buses will arrive in spring, this time 18-metre-long articulated buses, also of the Ebusco 2.2 type. With the articulated buses, 27% of all KVS buses will be emission-free electric buses – or more than a quarter.
The vehicles are recharged via 20 quick-charging wall boxes, which have been installed on the wall of the depot facing Oberförstereistraße, with Siemens and Stadtwerke Saarlouis being involved. Here, each of the battery buses has its place at ‘its’ charging station, and all twenty vehicles can be charged at the same time via cable and CCS combo plug. At the same time, the KVS electric buses do not require recharging on the route; recharging at the depot is absolutely sufficient. No charging stations on the route, no pantographs on the roof top.
The new KVS electric buses are expected to save 1,290 tonnes of CO2 per year. They – and their charging infrastructure – cost a total of 16.9 million euros, of which around 6.1 million came as subsidies from the federal government and exactly 353,751.20 euros from the state of Saarland. To date, Saarland has subsidised 35 battery buses and 28 hydrogen buses throughout the state.
The batteries of the new KVS Ebusco work with the cell chemistry lithium iron phosphate (LiFePh). A battery capacity of 525 kWh was stated at the presentation, which gives the vehicles a range of over 500 kilometres. This means that an Ebusco 2.2 can easily manage a complete day shift without having to recharge – so what’s the point of recharging poles on the line? By the way: Ebusco provides an eight-year guarantee on the batteries.
The new electric buses from Saarlouis are 12,000 mm long, 2,550 mm wide and 3,250 mm high. They can carry 90 passengers and are equipped with USB sockets. LED lighting ensures good lighting in the coach, while air conditioning, electric heating and a heat pump create pleasant conditions inside the coach. The 12 metre long Ebusco 2.2 has an unladen weight of 12,850 kg and a permissible total weight of 19,500 kg. This corresponds to a payload of 6,650 kg.
