With the handover of five battery-electric Mercedes‑Benz eCitaro 12‑metre solo buses on Wednesday, 23 April 2025, all solo buses from the Darmstadt-based mobility service provider HEAG mobilo are electrically powered.
The vehicle handover is carried out by Rüdiger Kappel, Head of Public Transport Sales Germany at Daimler Buses, and André Herrmann, Public Transport Authority Business at Daimler Buses, to Johannes Gregor and Arne Rath, Managing Directors of HEAG mobile.
The handover took place at the Böllenfalltor depot.
Mercedes-Benz eCitaro solo bus: battery-electric and high-range
The new three-door eCitaro is equipped with the NMC3 battery generation. This means that each of the five solo buses, with their six installed battery packs, achieve a total capacity of 588 kWh and a high range.
The vehicles are charged in the depot via plugs.
The vehicle-side charging sockets are located on the right and left near the front axle.
Exemplary equipment: Safety and passenger comfort
Besides from the electric drive, HEAG mobilo attaches particular importance to the safety and equipment of the narcissus yellow-painted e-buses, which have a maximum transport capacity of 70 passengers.
In addition to a reversing camera centrally located at the rear, all-round LED lighting technology and a large protective driver’s door, all vehicles have the active emergency braking assistant Preventive Brake Assist 2 with extended pedestrian and cyclist detection on board, which was developed especially for city buses.
The equipment also includes Frontguard Assist, which warns of obstacles or people directly in front of the vehicle, and Sideguard Assist 2, which monitors both the co-driver’s and driver’s side and warns the driver of the risk of collision with pedestrians or cyclists, for example in critical turning situations.
Sideguard Assist 2 and Frontguard Assist combine to create a complete warning system that warns of obstacles and persons at the sides and in front of the vehicle.
In addition, the five new eCitaro buses from HEAG mobilo feature, among other things, the intelligent Traffic Sign Assist speed assistant, the TPM tyre pressure monitoring system, the Attention Assist system and the Eco Driver Feedback driving style assistant.
In addition, the interior of the eCitaro is fully video monitored with four cameras.
With its high battery weight on the roof, the eCitaro also comes with roll and pitch control as standard.
An air conditioning system with heat pump and the environmentally friendly refrigerant R744 ensures pleasant temperatures and safety against infections in the passenger compartment, which is equipped with 26 passenger seats in the colours cobalt blue, saffron yellow and tin grey.
The interior equipment is completed by a manually actuated folding ramp, a special-purpose area with wheelchair support and integrated mother/child seats, as well as five double USB charging ports distributed in the side walls and a display in 29-inch 32:9 format for the Infotainment offering.
To protect and increase comfort for the driver, the driver’s cab is also separated from the passenger compartment by HEAG-specific all-round glazing.
Omniplus: digital services support operational optimisation
Like all buses from Daimler Buses, the new eCitaro buses from HEAG mobilo also feature the Bus Data Centre as an interface to the digital connectivity services from Omniplus as standard.
For example, the Darmstadt-based transport operator uses the Omniplus On Uptime pro service to improve the availability of its fleet.
Fault messages and important diagnostic information are transmitted to the workshop in real time to reduce service times.
HEAG mobilo also uses Omniplus Services On monitor time management, which allows the prescribed driver card and mass storage downloads to be carried out remotely in a time-saving manner, as well as Omniplus On monitor consumption analysis for evaluating and optimising energy consumption.
About HEAG mobile
With more than 150 buses and trams, the Darmstadt-based public transport operator HEAG mobilo transports almost 50 million passengers per year.
In June 2020 HEAG mobilo started its e-mobility offensive.
With the new delivery, the transport company now has 55 electric buses in its fleet, 46 of which bear the Mercedes star.
HEAG mobilo’s stated aim is to be able to operate all routes in Darmstadt and the Darmstadt-Dieburg district on a fully electric basis in just a few years.
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