The eCitaro G showed off its abilities and everyday practicability during a roadshow in Italy. The high-point was a trial in South Tyrol at around 2000 metres above sea level.

Electrification in local public transport is continuing apace. This is becoming ever clearer in the high demand for articulated buses. These form the backbone of public transport and are playing a large part in the transport revolution we need right now. Mercedes-Benz has been present on the market with its 18-metre-long eCitaro G since 2021. One of these electric giants went on tour in Italy.

The new, fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro G with its innovative solid-state batteries and double axle drive completed an extended roadshow across Italian cities from December 2021 to March 2022. Its stops included Genoa, Turin and Trieste, alongside Bomporto in Modena, the national headquarters of EvoBus Italia. Here, the eCitaro G completed a range of tests required for participation in tendering processes under the Italian CUNA standard (“Commissione Tecnica die Unificazione nell‘ Autoveicolo”): these covered vibration, noise pollution, power and other parameters demanded by the points system under the national tendering specifications. The city bus passed these with flying colours and is now on the starting blocks for public tendering processes.

Completely different challenges were presented to the “Grandissimo”, as it was nicknamed in an Italian trade journal, in the cities of northern Italy: the focus here was on achieving the given range of over 200 kilometres after charging the modern solid-state batteries with 441 kilowatt-hours. But the topics of passenger flow, heating, air-conditioning and safety were also put under the magnifying glass by the transport companies – and the eCitaro proved to have much to offer in these areas as we transition to emissions-free urban transport. For example, the AMT company in Genoa wants to switch to electric buses by 2025 – of which many will be articulated.

At Trieste Trasporti S.p.A. in Trieste, the articulated bus, able to transport 136 people – including 42 comfortably seated – grabbed attention on Route 9, the busiest one. And not only because it travelled 85 kilometres per day, free of charge to passengers. In the most easterly large city in Italy, on the Adriatic coast, a new electric bus depot is currently being planned so that, in ten years, around 50 percent of buses can be electrified. In addition, a project supported by DB Arriva to optimise energy consumption on the road has begun – also an important topic with electric buses.

A particular highlight was provided by the extensive tests of road safety and range on the demanding routes across the Seiser Alm plateau in winter conditions. The Seiser Alm is well known to many mountain lovers – and here too, consideration for sustainable mobility is gaining ground. The eCitaro G was used on a route travelled by the Silbernagl company between the villages of Compatsch (1850 above sea level) and Saltria (1680 metres) across the largest enclosed plateau in Europe, in the Dolomite range of South Tyrol. Silbernagl’s headquarters is nearby, in Kastelruth, South Tyrol. By its nature, the mountain landscape is a particular topographical and climatic challenge. On the twelve-kilometre approach to the plateau, a change in altitude of 800 metres had to be managed at a gradient of around ten percent. Arriving at the plateau, another 200 metres had to be navigated.

“Even without intermediate charging, we were able to cover our daily workload of over 150 kilometres without a problem,” Bickel says. If the articulated buses are to be deployed, they should be charged mostly in the valleys at night, but also if necessary on the high plateau. “And that is not a problem at all,” the EvoBus employee asserts. “There are many high-power electricity connections here – because of the number of snow cannons and ski lifts.” In the heating tests, even at temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, the highly efficient heat pump and particularly sturdy solid-state batteries meant that supplementary fossil-fuel heating was never required on board. To further back up the road test results under extreme conditions, the vehicle was also rigorously tested at the “Safety Park” in Bolzano, where it was taken to its physical limits on slippery surfaces with low grip.