Daimler Buses bets fully on battery-electric: new eCitaro platform lands 2028

From 2028, the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro will ride on a dedicated battery-electric platform with LFP cells — and Daimler Buses is putting nearly everything behind the battery. CEO Till Oberwörder laid out the plan at the company's eMobility Days 3.0 event in Munich's SAP Garden, where a near-production prototype of the next-generation city bus took centre stage.

The market context is blunt: by Daimler Buses' internal figures, EVs accounted for two-thirds of all new European public transport bus registrations last year. That's a segment that effectively has twelve years — 2018 to 2030 — to swing from diesel to electric, under EU rules requiring a 90 per cent CO₂ cut in new urban bus fleet emissions against the 2019 baseline.

Oberwörder, CEO since 2018, called the target "demanding for everyone, but achievable" — with one condition: funding must not collapse. "Nothing is worse than losing planning security for your investments," he told electrive editor Cora Werwitzke. "This kind of instability doesn't benefit anyone."

Why scrap the converted-diesel architecture?

The current eCitaro, launched in 2018, bolted an electric drivetrain onto the conventional bus. That bought speed to market but, in Oberwörder's words, the architecture has hit its technical limits. A purpose-built platform — designed also for future generations in other segments — should scale better, manage variants more cheaply, and push customers' total cost of ownership down.

Development entered its deeper phase over the past two years. On price, the CEO declined to promise a cheaper sticker: "every vehicle is individually configured." His reference point is TCO, which he says will fall.

The battery chemistry is changing with it. Daimler has run four NMC battery generations in roughly seven years on the eCitaro, retuning battery and thermal management each time. The next generation drops NMC entirely for LFP — longer service life and no cobalt. "The decisive factor is when which technologies become market-ready," Oberwörder said. "As a manufacturer, identifying the right moment is crucial."

What happens to the fuel cell?

Deprioritised, not dead. Oberwörder said the planned battery concepts will cover "almost all routes in European cities," making battery the primary path. The new platform would still accommodate a fuel-cell range extender if sustained demand appears — "a product should not be made more complex than necessary for its application." Post-2030, he backs a dual strategy of battery and hydrogen, noting route lengths where hydrogen fits and synergies available within the wider Daimler group.

The e-roadmap runs city first, then intercity — the new eCitaro will even handle some intercity routes — then a battery-electric coach by the end of the decade. He has seen the coach prototype; the rest of us will apparently wait.

Why subsidise a two-thirds-electric market?

Because TCO still has to fall, and because the money isn't really about the bus. "It's about depots, grid connections, the entire ecosystem," Oberwörder said. "Our call for further subsidies is less about the vehicle itself and more about the system as a whole."

That ecosystem argument shows up in Daimler Buses Solutions, the subsidiary founded three years ago to deliver turnkey depot charging. It has completed or commissioned around 100 projects and, per Oberwörder, must stand on its own financially. It even builds and operates public chargers open to all bus brands — Munich's ZOB among them — as a signal that public-space charging works.

The infrastructure gap is the real number to watch: ACEA figures cited by the company put 2030 needs at roughly 35,000 heavy-duty charging points along Europe's main transport axes plus more than 14,000 additional points for buses. Oberwörder welcomes truck-network expansion but notes coaches and travel groups are poorly served by unstaffed rest-area stops.

On running the transformation itself, he was philosophical: "It's extremely rewarding. You rarely get the opportunity to be part of such a significant change."

The near-term markers: the 2028 dedicated-platform eCitaro launch, the electric coach reveal before the decade turns, and whether Berlin and Brussels keep the subsidy floor under the 90 per cent CO₂ target.