The highlight of MAN's presentation (Hall 4, Stand 401) at this year's Busworld is the fully electric MAN Lion's Coach 14 E, which is celebrating its world premiere here in Brussels. MAN is utilizing the drive technology from its successful Lion's City E family for urban and interurban use. The Lion's Coach E has a battery capacity of 356 to 534 kWh with a range of up to 650 kilometres. Sooner than expected MAN is starting series production already next year at the Turkish MAN plant in Ankara.
Both the drive technology and NMC battery packs are manufactured in large series at the Nuremberg plant. The new Coach E features a smart design concept that reduces the drag coefficient (Cw value) to 0.31, which is comparable to that of compact SUVs. The basis for the eCoach is the tried-and-tested Lion's Coach, which was unveiled in 2017. Initially, the eCoach will hit the road as a 13.9 m long, three-axle vehicle with a maximum technically permissible gross weight of 27.3 tons. It can carry up to 61 passengers comfortably, with no restrictions on luggage space ranging from a minimum of 11 to a maximum of 13 cubic meters.
Following the electric Lion's Coach 14 E three-axle coach, MAN will be rolling out further models in the coach segment step by step until the turn of the decade. “The eCoach is also a real opportunity for coach tourism to reach new target groups for whom sustainability is also a key factor in travel planning,” says Heinz Kiess, Head of Product Marketing Bus. "In particular, because with a CCS charging capacity of up to 375 kW in conjunction with the driver's statutory driving and rest periods, a similar usage profile to a diesel bus is already possible today and will become better in the near future with the Megawatt Charging System, MCS, up to 750 kW."
Series production is scheduled to start in 2026 at MAN's Turkish plant in Ankara, which has been successively converted to eMobility in recent months. “The realignment at the site in Ankara is an important part of MAN's transformation into a provider of sustainable transport solutions,” emphasizes Oktay. An “early fleet” is to go to selected pioneering customers in the European core markets next year.
Also at the MAN booth, there is an electric low-entry bus MAN Lion’s City 12 E LE with new features for the 2025 model year and a Class 2 approval. A second highlight is the new battery generation (MAN BatteryPack) from MAN’s own production facility in Nuremberg, which is currently ramping up with an initial capacity of up to 50,000 packs per year.