VDL selling e-buses to towns in Germany
Dutch bus manufacturer VDL Bus & Coach has received orders from three more towns and cities in Germany to deliver 16 electric buses in total. The orders come from Plön in Schleswig-Holstein, Völklingen in Saarland and Neuss in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The 16 electric buses are distributed among the municipalities above: seven 12-meter Citea SLF-120 Electric buses will be delivered to Plön by October 2022. They have batteries with 350 kWh capacity and are designed for nighttime charging in the depot. Within three years, five identical buses and an 18-meter-long SLFA-180 Electric articulated bus will also go to Völklingen. This sextet is also to charge at night in the depot.
Finally, VDL will deliver two Citea SLF-120 Electric and one Citea SLFA-180 Electric to Stadtwerke Neuss. Neuss is close to Düsseldorf. These three models will initially be charged in the depot but will receive pantographs to charge on the line will be possible later.
“As more and more subsidies become available, the choice to purchase zero-emission buses has become easier. Doing so will enable not only the big cities but also smaller towns to achieve their desired greening more quickly and effectively,” states Boris Höltermann, Managing Director of VDL Bus & Coach Deutschland GmbH.
Klaas Mulder, sales manager for VDL Coach and Public Transport, also mentioned its travel business. “It is clear that demand for coaches has fallen sharply as a result of the coronavirus pandemic,” he said but also pointed to chances. Mulder sees sufficient opportunities in the German market, both in the short and long term: “Think of our Medibus, which is currently being used in a large-scale study by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) into the spread of COVID-19 in Germany.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 VDL electric buses are on the road in German cities, such as Münster, Cologne, Osnabrück, Oberhausen-Bottrop, Kiel and Leipzig.
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