Bucharest Municipality To Introduce Hybrid Buses For Public Transport

Bucharest is the first city in Romania to introduce hybrid buses for the public transport. The hybrid buses are all Mercedes Citaro and are to be operational in April.

Bucharest Municipality is trying to fight this way with the air pollution, one of the highest among European Union capital cities. The city mayor promoted the buses in a personal Facebook post, which already arrived in Romania, in an attempt to get back the environmentalist’s sympathy after the municipality gave up introducing the Oxygen vignette from March this year.

The hybrid Mercedes Citaro buses will seat 27 passengers and have enough room for another 80 standing passengers. The 130 buses the Bucharest City Mayor is planning to introduce will stock the breaking energy to use it when starting moving again, thus being less polluting.

The 14 kW electric motor generates energy when coasting and braking. It therefore assists the diesel or gas engine when pulling away. Depending on use, this can reduce the fuel consumption by up to 8.5 percent.

Manufacturer presentation.

Bucharest Municipality also hopes that this kind of acquisitions will also encourage more citizens to use the public transport. Bucharest ranks 1st in the EU by traffic jams and 14th in the world, according to Tom Tom.

Photo source: Mercedes Citaro official website.