The Krakow public transport authority, Poland’s second-largest public transport authority, has placed an order for 30 Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid vehicles as well as 56 conventional Citaro buses.

The Citaro hybrid buses are based on the hybrid technology unveiled by Mercedes-Benz last year (earlier post), and offer a fuel saving of up to 8.5% compared with the conventional Citaro.

The Citaro hybrid features a 7.7-liter OM 936 h engine with 220 kW (299 hp); a 14 kW electric motor; and a 6-speed automatic transmission.

The city of Gdansk is also investing in city buses from Mercedes-Benz. At the beginning of May, a contract for the supply of 46 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses was signed between the Gdansk public transport authority GAiT (Gdanskie Autobusy i Tramwaje) and Daimler Buses. The new vehicles will be handed over to the customer in the spring of 2019.

A further order, this one for 18 Mercedes-Benz Conecto buses, has also been placed during the first half of this year by the city of Bialystok in north-eastern Poland. The vehicles will be delivered towards the end of the year to Bialystok’s public transport operator.

The Mercedes-Benz Conecto is a city bus offered specifically for the markets in Eastern and Central Eastern Europe. These markets are characterized by their price-sensitive tendering processes and by a particularly strong focus on the lowest possible overall operating costs. The vehicles comply with the Euro VI emissions standard and offer customers an optimum in terms of comfort and safety engineering.

All Citaro city buses are manufactured at the EvoBus plant in Mannheim.