Vienna’s Wiener Linien orders 60 Mercedes-Benz eCitaro electric buses

The Wiener Linien transport company, which operates Vienna’s subway, bus and streetcar networks, has ordered 60 Mercedes-Benz eCitaro electric buses, to be delivered between 2023 and 2025. Wiener Linien plans to convert 9 of its 127 routes to electric operation with the low-floor eCitaro by the end of 2025. The 12-meter solo vehicles are equipped with NMC 3 battery packs with a capacity of 392 kWh each. Current collectors (pantographs) enable rapid charging at up to 300 kW.

Wiener Linien aims to build a new e-competence center in its former bus parking lot at Siebenhirten in south Vienna by the end of 2023. This will accommodate around 50 e-buses, which will be charged, maintained and repaired there.

The bus workshop in Vienna’s Spetterbrücke will be equipped with charging infrastructure, and 3 rapid charging stations will be constructed along the routes. Existing substations will be used to supply the charging stations with energy. Wiener Linien says it obtains 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.