Sono Motors launched a pilot project with Bavarian HofBus Gmbh that equipped the Mercedes-Benz Citaro C2 with 16 semi-flexible photovoltaic panels.
The innovative public transport pilot project has been launched in Hof in the north-east of Bavaria, where the bus operated by Stadtwerke Hof was equipped with an updated version of Sono Motors’ Solar Bus Kit, a solar retrofit solution for buses.
The installation was carried out for the first time together with ÖPNV-Service Hagen. The expertise of the company extends to the areas of cabling, repair, maintenance, and services for local public transportation. The company has over 15 years of experience as a service provider for local public transport and modernises around 4,000 commercial vehicles every year.
A Mercedes-Benz Citaro C2 in Hof was equipped with 16 semi-flexible PV panels, with the installed power of the modules totalling around 1.4 kWp. Double-sided tape was used for the first time to install the modules on the roof of the bus, meaning the total weight for all materials used in the project was only 50kg. The solar power generated in this way is fed into the battery to support the conventional diesel engine and save CO2 emissions.
The first HofBus bus with integrated solar bus kit from Sono Motors has been on the road in the city of Hof since it received road approval from the German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV). An identically-constructed, mild hybrid bus without a PV system is being operated at the same time to serve as a comparison. These comparative figures will make it possible to optimally compare driving performance and energy consumption within a certain distance travelled.
Working together to make local public transport emission-free
We at Sono Motors are very pleased to partner with HofBus GmbH. We believe the installation of our Solar Bus Kit for the first time on a vehicle from the HofBus fleet will demonstrate what a quick, easy, and cost-effective solution the Solar Bus Kit is for the sustainable reduction of emissions from public transport – says Jona Christians, CEO and co-founder of Sono Motors.
We are very excited about the results of the pilot project. We hope that it will serve as a model for other environmentally-friendly mobility solutions – explained Stadtwerke Hof’s Managing Director, Jean Petrahn.
The project is part of Stadtwerke Hof’s long-term strategy to promote the switch to electric mobility. The HofBus fleet is to be continuously converted to emission-free powertrains in the coming years
We are proud to present our first project in cooperation with Sono Motors. We will continue to work with Sono Motors’ customer service and logistics in order to maximise production capacity in Europe and offer fast, professional retrofitting and maintenance. We are looking forward to future projects – said Luca Bochhammer, Managing Director of ÖPNV Service.
Source: Sono Motors
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