ZF wins major order for 282 city buses in Saint Petersburg

Russia’s second largest city is now following suit with Moscow and placing its trust on a large-scale in advanced driveline and chassis technology from ZF, as well as steering systems from ZF Lenksysteme GmbH, for its buses: The technology Group’s modern commercial vehicle components will provide for lower fuel consumption, greater efficiency, and significantly improved passenger comfort in 282 new vehicles destined for Saint Petersburg. As a result, the fuel-saving and quiet automatic transmission, ZF-EcoLife, will be used in large quantities for the first time in buses produced by the Russian manufacturers LiAZ and Volgabus.

“All over Russia, numerous municipal transportation services are working intensively on modernizing their bus fleets – this includes deploying advanced driveline and chassis technology which they are ordering more and more frequently from ZF”, says Rolf Lutz, Member of the Board of Management responsible for the Commercial Vehicle Technology Division. “This is confirmed by the new major order from Saint Petersburg, which we are particularly pleased about. With this, EcoLife, currently our most advanced bus transmission, will eventually also be installed for the first time on a large scale in vehicles produced by local Russian manufacturers – more precisely in 183 solobuses from LiAZ and 99 articulated buses from Volgabus”. In total, there are more than 500 buses with ZF automatic transmissions on the road in Saint Petersburg.

The automatic ZF-EcoLife 6-speed transmission stands out in particular thanks to the interaction of modern hardware and intelligent software: It thus reduces the engine speed in buses under all operating conditions. Thanks to TopoDyn Life, the shifting program that comes as standard, the transmission changes into a higher gear at the earliest opportunity – depending on the topography and the load condition of the bus. Vehicles equipped with EcoLife instead of its predecessor, Ecomat, consume up to 10 percent less fuel. At the same time, the noise level is greatly reduced, and this is easier on the ears of residents, passers-by, and passengers, particularly when the bus is setting off from bus stops.

In addition, all the 282 new buses destined for the world’s most northerly city with more than one million inhabitants will have ZF chassis technology: The AV 132 low-floor driven axle guarantees a high level of driving safety, as well as maximum comfort. This is because it makes it possible to have a vehicle floor that is even throughout and has no irritating platforms. These advantages are also offered by the non-driven AVN 132 portal axle deployed in the articulated buses made by Volgabus. Furthermore, another plus point for these buses is that they are equipped with the ZF RL 85 front axle system: In the front passenger area, passengers also benefit from a wider center aisle, as well as a lower floor height. Maneuverability and precision on the roads of Saint Petersburg are provided for by the compact Servocom ball and nut power steering system from ZF Lenksysteme GmbH.

The Saint Petersburg bus fleet is also going to be used at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sotschi – supplemented by a further 100 vehicles which will also be equipped with modern transmission systems from ZF. The current order is concurrently the second major bus order from Russia for ZF this year: First, the technology company received an order for driveline and chassis technology for 565 public transport vehicles from the Moscow public transport authority, Mosgortrans. In the Russian capital alone, ZF has already equipped around 5 000 low-floor solobuses and trolley buses with up-to-date products.