Daimler Buses has equipped its Mannheim bus plant with a central charging station for the fully-electric eCitaro. It ensures that when the eCitaro that leaves the factory it is ready for the hand over to customers in a fully charged state. It has a flexible and modular infrastructure concept that deals with cable, pantograph and charging rail.
The charging station is compatible with all common charging technologies: 150 kW cable-bound charging, 300 kW rapid charging using a pantograph on the bus roof and 300 kW rapid charging using an inverted pantograph.
The charging station consists of four parking bays. It can handle the different charging systems from two manufacturers. Buses can be charged with an output of 150 kW. The system, delivered by the Dutch company Heliox, has a modular design to ensure that it can be expanded as required.
The electric charging station is located directly behind the vehicle handover hall which is a strategically interesting location and is built in a space-saving way to resemble a bridge. The city buses drive straight under the charging station and park there for charging. The total connection power at the charging station is 1.2 megawatts. The corresponding cables are roughly as thick as a human arm and run in an extendable cable channel in the ground.
MB's decision to set up the central electric charging station within the plant's premises was focused on testing both charging via the roof and the vehicle's own charging technology.
