Ebusco, the Dutch electric bus manufacturer from Deurne and Venray, has announced a major order for 23 vehicles from the municipal transport company ViP (Verkehrsbetriebe in Potsdam) in the Brandenburg state capital. Specifically, the order is for ten 12 metre long e-buses and thirteen 18 metre long articulated e-buses from Ebusco’s new 3.0 series, which not only represents a major order for Ebusco, but also a new customer in ViP. The new electric buses are due to be delivered at the beginning of 2025.
The new Ebusco 3.0 are low-floor buses. Nevertheless, their very flat batteries have found their place under the floor, which gives the buses a favourable centre of gravity. In addition, they are not as high as a bus with batteries on the roof, which allows them to pass through lower subways where a bus with batteries on the roof would “bump its head”.
The body of the Ebuco 3.0 is not made of steel, but of composite plastic. A woven structure of plastic threads is filled with resin to form a closed, smooth surface. This gives the vehicle a significantly lower tare weight, and the Ebusco 3.0 only has single tyres on the drive axle. And weight that does not have to be set in motion does not consume any energy.
The 12 metre long solo cars have a battery capacity of 350 kWh, the articulated cars will even have a capacity of 500 kWh. For the time being, these are (still) very respectable figures. Nevertheless, the carriages for Potsdam will be the first Ebusco to have a pantograph for recharging en route on the line. (Until now, Ebusco has relied exclusively on overnight recharging using cables at the depot).
The ViP assume that the use of the new electric buses will prevent more than 5,000 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the environment every year.
