First deliveries of the hydrogen-powered Mercedes-Benz eCitaro G

Daimler Buses has just delivered the first units of its popular Zero Emission eCitaro bus, but equipped this time with a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system. According to the manufacturer, the German company RNV has had the honour of receiving the first 3 units, which it will begin to use shortly as part of the company’s fleet.

RNV’s order is, however, much larger. The company expects to receive 45 additional units of the articulated version of the eCitaro G by mid-2025. Of these 48 vehicles in total, RNV plans to deploy 40 on regular service in the German cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg, and the other eight in the town of Ludwigshafen am Rhein.

RNV is now considering ordering another 27 additional eCitaro G units for 2027, which would increase the total order volume to 75 articulated buses with hydrogen fuel cell propulsion systems.

These are RNV’s plans for these first units of the eCitaro G

The three buses delivered now will first go through a testing phase until early 2024, when they will finally enter regular service. During this first phase, RNV will focus its efforts on training the drivers who will operate them, as well as evaluating the real-world range of the vehicles and the number of hydrogen refuelling stops required for their operations.

RNV has also expanded its own infrastructure with two new hydrogen refuelling stations, which will join the 30 charging points it already had for the fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro models. These two new stations are located in the German city of Heidelberg and will be managed by H2 Mobility, which will allow them to also be open to the general public.

The eCitaro G from Mercedes-Benz is equipped with six battery packs with a total capacity of 392 kWh, to which are added six tanks storing a total of 30 kilograms of liquid hydrogen. With the energy stored in the batteries and the hydrogen fuel cell acting as a range extender, the eCitaro G is capable of covering more than 400 km without stopping according to Daimler Buses.