Vikingbus grows electric bus fleet in Copenhagen
The company won several recent tenders for bus routes in Denmark, which the Polish-built e-bus from MAN will serve.
Vikingbus is already familiar with the Lion’s City 12 E since the company received twelve electric buses in 2021 and 2022, now serving routes in Odder and Skanderborg. In addition, the fleet still comprises some MAN and Neoplan combustion engine buses. Adding the 45 electric vehicles from the current order, Vikingbus will have 86 MAN and Neoplan in the fleet.
The 12-metre bus offers 35 seats and can carry up to 88 passengers in total. The drivetrain in the solo bus has an output of 160 kW to a maximum of 270 kW, and MAN puts the range at 200 to 270 kilometres.
Each of the new electric buses will have a charge point; since the vehicles will permanently connect to the power supply in the depot, Vikingbus can also use the MAN’s ‘eManager pre-condition mode’ for heating or cooling the driver’s seat, the passenger cabin and the battery pack while the bus is at the charging station.
“It will be incredibly exciting for us to get so many electric buses out on the roads in Greater Copenhagen and the additional suburban municipalities,” commented Jesper Mathiesen, Fleet & PTA Tender Manager of Citybus at MAN I Denmark. He added that it would require “100 per cent focus from both parties to get the many buses on the road to the agreed deadline”.
Copenhagen is not the only city expecting to see more MAN buses. Lions City E buses are also in operation in Malmö, with Gothenburg and Stockholm being next on the in Scandinavia. The Group also expects “to supply a large number of e-buses” currently put out to tender in Oslo, Norway.
Back to Denmark, where Vikingbus reportedly ordered 31 Mercedes eCitaro this November. However, the company will not deploy these EVs in Copenhagen but further south on the island of Sjӕlland. Since the vehicles there have to cover long distances of up to 500 kilometres a day, which is rather untypical for city buses, Daimler equips the electric buses with 588 kWh batteries.
