Solingen: handover of the first 18 meter electric bus

The order for the 15 new 18 meter buses had been issued to Vossloh Kiepe and the Swiss vehicle manufacturers Carosserie Hess only a year ago, in December 2007. The second Swiss Trolley lll vehicle has also been delivered to Solingen in the meantime; the remaining articulated trolley buses are to follow from March to June 2009.

 Carosserie Hess is responsible for the vehicle structuring of the 18 meter long buses which are equipped with innovative electric traction equipment by Vossloh Kiepe. This modern traction technology is mounted on the roof of the vehicles so that the passenger compartment can have a complete low-floor design. In this way the passenger flow is relieved considerably and also offers passengers using baby carriages and wheelchairs a high level of comfort when entering and exiting.

The modern Vossloh Kiepe drive system has two engines which drive two of the three vehicle axles. This guarantees good acceleration and secures electric braking of the vehicle even under difficult conditions.

The new vehicles are equipped with the modular OSA 500 current collector system. This innovative system was developed by Vossloh Kiepe and facilitates an automatic connecting/disconnecting of the current collector poles to the overhead lines right from the driver’s area. Driving without overhead lines is made possible with the use of a diesel generator which already now complies with the strict emission limit values according to the Euro V Norm, which comes into effect as of 2009. In addition, integrated preheating improves the quality of the waste gas after the start process. Using intelligent energy management, the drive system is able to feed brake energy back into the power supply. Thus the energy consumption of the zero-emission drive is reduced to a minimum.

Düsseldorf, January 2009

Contact:
Martin Schmitz
Vossloh Kiepe GmbH
Tel.: +49 (0)211 7497-454,
m.schmitz@vkd.vossloh.com