TMB Barcelona yesterday has held a conference day, together with MAN, focusing on the presentation of the Lion’s City 18 E electric bus and on the sustainability projects of the municipal PTO. The event, TMB points out, was attended by more than 40 managers and delegates from operators such as Vectalia, Moventis, Sagalés, Tusgsal, TUS Sabadell, Soler i Sauret and TITSA, as well as the host TMB, the Metropolitan Transport Authority, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and ATUC.

According roadmap announced last December by TMB, from now on only clean (and, preferably, electric) vehicles will be procured.

Barcelona to test the MAN Lion’s City 18 E

Testing of the Lion’s City 18 E is to begin this month. Barcelona is one of only two cities in Europe (the other, Cologne, in Germany) that will verify its performance and suitability for urban service before the start of series production. According to the manufacturer’s data, the Lion ‘s City 18E has a range of 200 kilometres on a mixed route, and up to 270 kilometres in favourable conditions.

The test bus will initially run on the H16 line, which is served by other articulated electric buses. In this way, operating and performance data will be compared. Later, the MAN Lion’s City 18E will be used on other high-demand lines in the TMB network.

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The President of TMB, Rosa Alarcón, who spoke at the conference, placed the collaboration with MAN within the line of joint work with leading companies committed to sustainability. “Energy transition and the adoption of green energies are some of our commitments to meet the goal of sustainable development”, she pointed out. And he added: “In addition to fighting the climate crisis, by collaborating with industry players we can combat the economic crisis with this public commitment to investment, which will lead to jobs and a very significant positive impact on the region”.

At the meeting, Rudi Kuchta, vice-president and director of MAN’s bus unit, explained the electrification projects the manufacturer has underway. Kuchta reaffirmed MAN’s commitment to electric drivetrains and announced that they are working to ensure that in the near future the bus batteries will have a range of 400 km.

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Progressive electrification of TMB bus fleet

On behalf of TMB, the CEO, Gerardo Lertxundi, highlighted MAN’s proposal for “its capacity for technological development, its honesty in defining its strategy for the future and its technological robustness and safety”. In his speech, he detailed the plans for the implementation of sustainable energies for Barcelona’s bus fleet, which include progressive electrification, a commitment to hydrogen fuel cell technology and experimentation with biogas obtained from waste. The CEO of TMB has made a commitment to all bus operators to share the results of the tests that TMB carries out with Lion’s City “to make efficient progress in public transport’s commitment to sustainability”.

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