• de
  • en

Ebusco presents its first 3.0 articulated e-bus to the press

© Ebusco

On Friday, 16 December 2022, the Dutch electric bus manufacturer Ebusco from Deurne presented the articulated version of its new 3.0 bus generation. At this event, the manufacturer was also able to welcome the Dutch Minister of the Environment Vivianne Heijnen, whose responsibilities include public transport.

The articulated bus of the 3.0 series is not the first articulated bus from Ebusco. The 2.2 series, which also rolls out of the factory in Deurne, is also available in an articulated version – but in contrast to the 3.0 series, it is much more conventionally made of steel.

Ebusco 2.2 artic at VDV’s Elektrobus-Konferenz in Berlin | © Christian Marquordt

At the presentation, Ebusco emphasised that the new articulated bus of its 3.0 series is characterised by particularly low total costs of ownership (TCO). This is due to its lightweight composite construction, which gives it an unladen weight of only 14,500 kilograms. That is really remarkably low; an articulated steel car easily reaches an unladen weight of 17,000 kg. For 2.5 tonnes that don’t need to be moved, no energy needs to be expended either.

The Ebusco 3.0 articulated trolley can carry 150 passengers. This corresponds to what we also know from our diesel articulated buses.

The new articulated bus is available with battery packs with outputs of 350 or 500 kWh. These give it a range of up to 700 kilometres – it wasn’t long ago that there were people who thought you had to replace an electric bus for recharging after every lap on its route. Now it’s 700 kilometres: this range is enough for two days of operation, and recharging is only necessary during the night on the third day of operation.

The batteries of the Ebusco 3.0 articulated bus have found their place under the floor. This gives the trolley a very low centre of gravity, which has a positive effect on its handling and passenger comfort. Ebusco relies on cobalt-free LiFePo batteries (lithium – iron (ferrum) – polonium) and justifies this with higher safety, longer battery life and the better conditions in the extraction of these materials. In addition, no cobalt is needed, the mining of which is not always entirely unproblematic from an ecological point of view.

Due to the low weight of the bus, single tyres can be mounted on all wheels. This allows a 90-centimetre-wide passageway inside the bus, not least between the wheel arches of axles 2 and 3. This makes it much easier for disabled people and people with walkers, for example, to move around in the bus and thus to use it.

The side walls made of the composite material are injected with a foam. This gives the coach a high level of thermal insulation, which also reduces the energy consumption required for air conditioning and heating. And this in turn increases the range of the bus. The foam-injected composite body also provides a high level of protection in the event of an accident.

In the past year, Ebusco has already received several orders for articulated buses of its 3.0 series. This is all the more remarkable because the customers have thus ordered a vehicle that did not even exist yet. And this in turn shows that customers have confidence in Ebusco. These first orders for the Ebusco 3.0 series articulated buses came from Oslo (Norway), from Örebro-Län (Sweden), from Rouen (France) and from the Swedish university city of Växjö.

The demand for articulated buses from Ebusco is now so great that the manufacturer will set up its own production line for articulated buses in 2023 in order to be able to meet this demand.    

Ebusco CEO Peter Bijvelds says: “I am immensely proud that we are presenting this ground-breaking 18-meter bus today. With about a third of our workforce working in R&D and engineering, we continuously manage to develop at high speed. This has now resulted in the lightest and most efficient articulated bus in the world.“

Presentation ceremony in Deurne on 16 December 2022 | © Ebusco
The first new bus | © Ebusco
18.12.2022
4.5 4 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments