Offenbach wants to lead the way with the traffic turnaround and is converting its vehicle fleet to electric.
But the switch is more difficult than expected.
Offenbach - The city of Offenbach * relies on e-mobility in local transport. To this end, the first electric buses were purchased last year, and 17 more new vehicles followed this year. According to the press release of the city of Offenbach, the conversion is understood as an "important component of sustainable, climate-friendly urban and transport development". The total number of e-buses in the city is expected to increase to 36 by the end of 2021. That would correspond to around 40 percent of the entire vehicle fleet. The city is thus well positioned. Industry experts expect the internal combustion engine to disappear completely from Europe's roads in the next few years.
The buses come from the Polish manufacturer Solaris.
This delivers "Urbino 12 electric" and "Urbino 18 electric" vehicles to the city of Offenbach.
Solaris describes itself as a manufacturer with 25 years of tradition, which among other things received the “prestigious“ Bus of The Year 2017 ”award for the Urbino 12 electric.
E-buses: Doubts about suitability for everyday use
At least with the Urbino 18, however, doubts about its suitability for everyday use have recently arisen.
As op-online.de reports, three of the fully electric, three-axle articulated buses failed because of an underpass in Offenbach's Bieber district.
The rising terrain turned out to be too steep for them.
Some observers suspected that the electric buses might not be able to perform as well as their predecessors with internal combustion engines.
City: start-up difficulties for new vehicles "completely normal"
However, the city of Offenbach rejected this.
In a statement it said that such incidents for new vehicles are "completely normal".
In the past, new combustion buses also had technical problems.
In some vehicles, for example, the cooling system failed or there were problems with the accelerator pedal.
Here, the manufacturers are obliged to rectify the defects immediately, it said.
This also eliminated the problem with the e-buses.
On site, technicians from Offenbacher Verkehrsbetriebe (OVB) checked together with the manufacturer Solaris to see how the three e-buses could fail.
City of Offenbach: No costs despite breakdowns
The so-called bus stop brakes were quickly identified as a problem.
This safety mechanism usually blocks the starting of the buses when the doors are open and has jumped on the slope to prevent the vehicles from rolling back.
Apart from the anger, the city got off lightly.
Because the buses were still under warranty, the remedial action was entirely at the manufacturer's expense.
Whether switching to e-vehicles makes sense in all cases is discussed elsewhere.
* op-online is part of IPPEN.DIGITAL.