Mercedes-Benz Brazil Shows Electric Bus

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Mercedes-Benz of Brazil has shown a fully electric eO500U bus chassis designed for Latin American cities. It will be produced at São Bernardo do Campo, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo starting in 2022. The electric bus chassis has a range of up to 250 kilometers.

The battery charging system of the eO500U is a plug-in design with the same technological that Daimler Buses has installed in the fully-electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro city bus. A full charge of the high-voltage batteries takes around three hours. (Daimler Truck, Volvo Group Create “cellcentric” Fuel-Cell JV; Daimler to Spin-Off Daimler Truck into Separate Company; Daimler Boards Approve Spin Off of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Truck as Two companies. Shareholder Vote in October; Mercedes-Benz – New Platforms Electric Only From 2025)

“The fully electric eO500U bus chassis is part of our global development strategy for electromobility. Our goal is to make local public transport even more environmentally friendly and to improve the quality of life in cities,” says Gustav Tuschen, Head of Product Engineering and Purchasing Daimler Buses.

If there is equivalent customer interest, “use outside of Latin America is also conceivable. “The eO500U is a model from the O-500 series, which is also the basis for the Mercedes-Benz Super Padron city bus. The low-floor vehicle can accommodate city bus bodies with a length of up to 13.2 meters and offers space for up to 86 passengers. It is driven by wheel hub motors on the rear axle. The Mercedes-Benz eCitaro, provided the development basis. The chassis was completely created in Brazil and put through intensive tests by engineers from Daimler Buses in Germany and Brazil.

Mercedes-Benz do Brasil is the largest bus and truck manufacturer in Latin America. The bus plant in São Bernardo do Campo was opened in 1956 and specializes in the development and production of bus chassis.