Just recently VDL Bus & Coach announced a first order in Germany from the city Oberhausen for their New Generation Citea. Now the city of Braunschweig has ordered 16 New Generation Citea LF-122 electric buses. Operator KVG (Braunschweig Kraftverkehrsgesellschaft GmbH) confirms with this order its long standing relationship with the Dutch bus manufacturer.
The vehicles of type LF-122 are based entirely on an electric drive train. VDL Bus & Coach is thus expanding its long-term cooperation with KVG Braunschweig. The first German order for the electric New Citea was given by STOAG (Stadtwerke Oberhausen GmbH). They will be delivered in 2023. “Kraftverkehrsgesellschaft GmbH Braunschweig and VDL Bus & Coach have for many years enjoyed a good and successful collaboration, which is now entering a new phase", says Boris Höltermann of VDL Bus & Coach Deutschland GmbH. "We are very proud of the development we have gone through with this customer: from the Citea LLE to the Citea SLF-E and now to our new generation Citea.” The electric buses have a battery pack of 429 kWh which will give the low floor New Citeas LF-122 a range of up to 300 kilometres.
VDL states the New Citea offers the driver a better seating position and an improved adjustable steering column, with a greater range of adjustment and lower steering forces for optimum comfort. The vehicle uses a heat pump air conditioning system without the need for additional diesel heating.
Since 1909 Kraftverkehrsgesellschaft GmbH Braunschweig meets the mobility needs of around 13 million passengers every year with almost 200 buses and more than 400 employees. With the company's orientation towards climate-friendly public transport, the focus is on the gradual conversion of the bus fleet to alternative drives, and in particular to electric mobility. “We are aiming to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions”, stresses KVG Braunschweig's managing director Axel Gierga.