The aim of the Green Bus Model project, which is putting public transport on a new, environmentally friendly footing, is to introduce electric buses into local transport in large rural cities for demonstration purposes, and then, after evaluating the experience, to move to full electric transport in the long term.
As part of the series of programmes to be launched in September 2020, Inter Traction Electrics Ltd., in consortium with Omnibus Hungária Kereskedelmi Kft., as a qualified electric bus manufacturer/distributor, contributed to the launch of the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro, a rechargeable Mercedes-Benz bus with a large capacity battery, which was the first to be introduced in Debrecen.
Another subsidiary of the ITK Group, Pandant TMSZ Ltd., has been included in the list of “Successfully qualified electric bus charging equipment and the supplying partners”.
After Debrecen, we represented the demonstration programme in Zalaegereszeg. Here, from March 2021, the travelling public could meet a Mercedes-Benz eCitaro three-door bus. The bus ran on a regular schedule on local routes in the county seat of Zala. The full-length, low-floor test bus, built in 2019, can seat 80 people. The vehicle was equipped with a 2.5-tonne lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide 12-battery pack, with enough capacity for a full day’s operation on a single charge.
The same electric bus continued its journey from Zalaegerszeg to Kecskemét, where it entered service on 22 April 2021. The Mercedes-Benz eCitaro was also used for a month in the famous city on regular routes and proved extremely popular during the test run. Several film crews captured the vehicle at work, but our bus driver colleagues report that local residents were also keen to take photos and video footage of the eCitaro.
During the four-week test programme, the eCitaro was required to run a minimum of 200 kilometres twice a week, 150 kilometres three times a week and 100 kilometres once a day, which it successfully completed.