Five new hybrid buses from Vossloh Kiepe and Carosserie Hess handed over to Leipzig Public Transport

Designed to be silent and more importantly to emit low amounts of emissions: The five modern hybrid buses from Vossloh Kiepe and Carosserie Hess.

Subsidies from the Federal Government and the Federal State made it possible – money which came from the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development as well as a bus advancement programme from the Free State of Saxony. The Federal Minister of Transport, Peter Ramsauer, came to the vehicle presentation in Leipzig on May 26th and saw for himself the effectiveness of the hybrid engine technology.

The first five of a total of ten 18-metre hybrid buses were handed over to the Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe GmbH (LVB) during the “International Transport Forum 2011 (ITF)”. The event provided a suitable platform for the delivery of environmentally friendly and energy-saving technology, since the international visitors from the fields of politics, economics, science and civil society discussed the topic of “Transport for Society”. Vossloh Kiepe is continuously working on future-oriented goals such as the reduction of greenhouse gases, the development of solutions for energy-reduction and the optimization of technical facilities in public transport.

Accordingly, the modern Leipzig hybrid buses are also equipped with a very effective drive system. It features several interlocking components which effectively lower energy consumption. It was the intention that the new vehicles use 20 percent less energy than comparable diesel bus models.

These modern 18-metre buses from Vossloh Kiepe and Hess are equipped with serial drive trains and two-axle drives. This facilitates both good acceleration and fully electric braking. The energy released during breaking is buffered into Supercaps and made available for acceleration – this process saves a significant amount of fuel.

Intelligent location-dependent energy management and an automatic start/stop system have also been integrated into the new vehicles, offering additional saving-potential. This results in an option to switch the diesel engine off locally. So these buses can be operated quietly and emission-free.

The vehicles were additionally equipped with a very modern GPS event control system. This system, among other things, responds to the specific topography of the route taken. By pre-configuration of the drive it is possible to achieve optimal energy control with regard to the actual route taken; the precise co-ordination of the individual drive components can be controlled as well.

Five hybrid buses of the same model will also be handed over to the Dresdner Public Transport (DVB) in the coming weeks. The objective here is to eventually make city centres completely emission-free.