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First electric buses from MCV in Germany – in Bad Nauheim

10,6 metre MCV C106 EV in Bad Nauheim | © Christian Marquordt

In the Hessian district of Friedberg (Wetteraukreis), around 30 kilometres north of Frankfurt and on the eastern edge of the Taunus mountains, lies the well-known spa town of Bad Nauheim. It calls itself a ‘health town’ and has a population of almost 34,000.

It offers its citizens and spa guests the ‘Bad Nauheim city bus’ service. It runs on four routes

11: Nieder-Mörlen – Usa-Wellenbad (frequency: every 30 minutes)

12: Kaiserberg – Steinfurth (every 60 minutes)

14: Bodestraße – Schwalheim (irregular, every 120 minutes on Saturdays, every 240 minutes on Sundays)

15: Bahnhof – Wisselsheim – Kaiserberg (every 60 minutes, whereby lines 12 and 15 complement each other on sections at 30-minute intervals)

The central transfer point in the network is ‘Aliceplatz’ in the city centre, which is also centrally located to a large park.

Stadtwerke Bad Nauheim does not have its own buses. Instead, buses from ‘Stroh Bus-Verkehrs GmbH’ from neighbouring Altenstadt run on the Nauheim routes. Stroh first won the tender to operate the Nauheim city lines for ten years in December 2014 – and was able to defend it for a further ten years in December 2024. Managing Director Friedel Stroh: ‘We receive an amount of “x” euros from Stadtwerke Bad Nauheim for every kilometre travelled. We have to use this to cover the cost of purchasing the buses, cover the running costs (labour costs for the drivers, maintenance of the buses) and we also have to make a certain profit – we are a private company that has to make a living. Everything else is a matter for the city. It makes the timetables, it says when, how often and where a bus should run. It must take an interest in whether the city bus service is running at a loss and how it compensates for a deficit. We provide the buses, and to ensure that we do this on favourable terms for the city, we put them out to tender.’

Stadtwerke Managing Director Dr Thorsten Reichel announced on 28 January that the city council had decided to secure funding for the city bus service for a further ten years, i.e. until 2034. 

Six buses are required for the route network described and the corresponding range of journeys. Since December 2014, these have been three Mercedes-Benz Citaro K buses and three 12-metre-long Citaro buses. Dr Reichel: ‘Normally, the “small” Citaro K buses would be big enough for our routes. But we do have some journeys where the buses get very full with pupils at peak times. And we have the large buses for these routes.

Meanwhile, Stroh’s buses from 2014 were ten years old – so you can start thinking about new vehicles. Nauheim’s city council has also decided that in future, the city’s bus routes will be 100 per cent electric. As a result, ‘Stroh Bus-Verkehrs GmbH’ put out a tender for the delivery of three small and three large battery electric buses. Several bids were received, including one from the Egyptian bus manufacturer MCV with its German subsidiary ‘MCV Deutschland’, which is based in Bestwig in the Sauerland region. And the Stroh company says that MCV’s offer was the most favourable.

Managing Director Friedel Stroh: ‘Which offer we accept and which buses we buy is our decision. The city is not involved.’

Mercedes-Benz Citaro K in Bad Nauheim | © Christian Marquordt

28 January 2025: Nauheim’s new electric city buses are unveiled

On 28 January, Nauheim’s new electric city buses were presented not only to invited guests, but also to the general public. This took the form of a small public festival with a sausage stand and drinks stall, as well as a children’s carousel at the ‘Aliceplatz’ central bus stop. Dr Reichel: ‘We have extended the Christmas market a little.’

One ‘short’ (MCV C 107 EV) and one ‘long’ (MCV C 127 EV) bus of the new MCV electric buses were on show at the presentation. They are the first buses that MCV has been able to sell in Germany. In Europe, however, things are quite different: MCV has been well known for a long time, especially in the United Kingdom. (And MCV already exhibited a very smart double-decker bus at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover in 2011). When Volvo now decided to stop building complete buses, MCV was appointed as the busbuilder to build bus bodies on Volvo chassis. Note: Volvo is recognised as a bus manufacturer that delivers solid quality. They will make sure that the busbuilder fulfils their requirements

The 12-metre model C127 EV built by MCV | © Christian Marquordt
© Christian Marquordt

The new MCV electric buses have a new design that is clearly characterised by the colour green. The association arises automatically: green = environmentally conscious. The design was developed by an office in Nauheim. Each of the five ‘green’ buses is particularly characterised by the depiction of a characteristic Nauheim sight on the side: one of the buses shows a graduation tower (a reference to the spa town of Bad Nauheim), one is the ‘Elvis bus’. This is because Elvis Presley was stationed in Bad Nauheim during his military service, including with the American army, which makes him a ‘great son’ of the town. There is a memorial to him on a bridge in the spa district, and a picture of this memorial now adorns this bus. – However, one of the three large MCV C 127 EVs is an exception: it carries a full advertisement for the Bad Nauheim ice hockey club with the basic colour red. In this way, the city bus wants to emphasise its connection with ice hockey, an important sport in the city. 

The new buses have a pleasing appearance. As is often the case today, the new MCVs also have a wood-look floor. Disabled passengers are guided – MCV calls it the ‘Easy Bus Concept’ – by yellow guidelines on the floor to the seats suitable for them. These were supplied by the German manufacturer Kiel. They are upholstered in dark grey fabric, with the corresponding symbol woven into the seats specially designed for disabled passengers. All of these seats are located at the front of the bus between the two doors.  Uwe Schneider from MCV: ‘We don’t send anyone with a disability to the back of the carriage. These passengers prefer to stay close to the driver. The young people sit at the back, they love the rear of the bus.’

The shorter 10.6-metre C106 EV from MCV in Bad Nauheim | © Christian Marquordt
© Christian Marquordt

In the front of the bus, there are seats that are arranged on special platforms to make it easier for people sitting here to stand up. There are also seats that are arranged in such a way that passengers can park their rollator next to them. 

MCV has not skimped on manually folding ramps for wheelchairs or pushchairs: there is a ramp of this type at both doors. This is unusual, as it is usual for a bus to have only one such ramp, usually at the centre door. The ramp at the front makes it possible for passengers with rollators to board at the front next to the driver – which they are happy to do because they feel safer under the driver’s ‘supervision’. And, of course, MCV has made sure that the aisle between the wheel arches of the front axle is wide enough for a passenger with a walking frame who has boarded at the front to fit through to the inside of the vehicle.

MCV emphasises that these details make it quicker to change passengers at the bus stop. 

MCV has a particularly clever detail on the outside of the right-hand side of the carriage. A strip with illuminated elements runs along the edge of the roof. As soon as the doors of the bus are opened (in the dark), this light strip comes on and illuminates the area next to the bus. Schneider: ‘Nobody has to get off in a dark “hole”.’ Simple really, but you just have to come up with the idea.

© Christian Marquordt
© Christian Marquordt

The stop request buttons on each stop bar in the bus are also clever. Their anchoring elements are not solid throughout, but each have two gaps in which LEDs are located. Initially, the LED lights up in white to indicate that the stop request button is activated. As soon as a passenger has pressed the button, the colour changes to red – this means that the button has been pressed and the stop at the next stop has been requested. If the door is opened at the stop, the LED goes out; if the door is closed again, the LED switches back to white.

For visually impaired passengers, there are tactile handrails on the doors which enable passengers to recognise (feel) that they are now at the door.  

The batteries come from the French manufacturer Forsee (no, not from China) and have a capacity of 385 kW in the 10.6 metre long ‘short’ bus (MCV C 107 EV) and 482 kW in the 12 metre long bus (MCV C 127 EV). The electric central motors come from Plastic Omnium in Remagen, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Both axles, front and rear, come from ZF in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Uwe Schneider from MCV: ‘These buses consist of European components that were assembled into the finished vehicle in Egypt.’

Depot and charging facilities

The Stroh buses for the Bad Nauheim city bus service do not travel back to the depot in Altenstadt every evening and return from there in the morning, but ‘spend the night’ in a car park in Bad Nauheim. But there is now a significant improvement here too: a proper depot is being built for the city transport buses on Benekeplatz in the neighbourhood (with the pretty name) of Taubenbaum. It is due to go into operation in the autumn and the buses will be able to ‘fill up with electricity’ overnight at eight charging points. Head of the municipal utilities department Sebastian Schmitt: ‘As the buses only need the charging points overnight, they can be available to the general public during the day as a charging station for cars or lorries.’

And he adds: ‘By switching to electric buses, we will avoid using 170,000 litres of diesel fuel every year and thus avoid the corresponding pollutant emissions. And another thing: by converting our city buses to electric buses, we are the first city in Germany to use 100 per cent electric buses in city transport.’

Technical data of the new Bad Nauheim MCV electric buses MCV C 107 EV/ MCV C127 EV

  • Length: 10,600 mm/12,000 mm
  • Width: 2,550 nmm/2,550 mm
  • Height: 3,200 mm/3,200 mm
  • Front axle: ZF RL 82 with independent suspension
  • Rear axle: ZF AVE 133 (low-floor portal axle)
  • Both axles with air suspension
  • Electric motor: Plastic Omnium, central motor, high recuperation rate, easy to maintain
  • Batteries: Forsee (France), type: ZEN Plus LiNMC on the roof at right angles to the direction of travel, protected from accidents and dirt
  • 5 packs of 77 kW/6 packs of 77 kW
  • Capacity: 385 kW/482 kW
  • Inverter: Actia
  • Doors: Ventura (Netherlands)
  • Mirror-eye cameras instead of rear-view mirrors (better visibility to the rear, brightening in the dark)
  • Driver assistants:
  • Blind Spot Assist, Intelligent Speed Assist, Reversing Information Assist (for reversing), Attention Assist (fatigue protection)
03.02.2025