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English   Alternative drive systems in Buses of Daimler AG – Part I
23.12.2008 von admin

German version

Alternative drive systems in Buses of Daimler AG – Part I
  • More than 100 years of experience with electric and hybrid drives
  • Pioneer of diesel-electric drive, natural gas and hydrogen
  • New transportation and drive systems: From vision to practical testing
  • Most comprehensive practical trials to date with fuel-cell-powered buses

The forerunners: Gas, steam and electricity
Alternative to gasoline and diesel engines have existed since the early days of the automotive era. Long before Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz invented the gasoline-powered automobile in 1886, steamers traveled the roads of England. Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir developed a road vehicle with gas engine in 1863, which Nikolaus August Otto took as model when he invented the patented high-speed four-stroke gasoline engine in 1876. In 1882, in Berlin-Halensee, Siemens presented the Elektromote, the world’s first trolleybus.

Admittedly, in earlier times the motives often were anything but concern for a clean environment, as in the case of the wood carburetors of the 1930s. However, the past experience was the basis from which the search for environment-friendly drive systems had to start towards the end of the 1960s.


Propulsion energy at times of hardship, available ex factory: Mercedes-Benz 170 VG (1935) with wood gas burner.

Electric drive and wheel hub motors: First buses back in 1899

When commercial vehicle development chief A. H. Müller-Berner and engineer P. Strifler presented the OE 302 diesel-electric hybrid urban bus in Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift in 1970 – marking the beginning of the development of alternative drive systems at Daimler-Benz – in their introduction they recalled a forerunner from the year 1899. The bus, lettered “Kaiser Hotel” and strongly reminiscent of a horse-drawn coach, came from Motorfahrzeug- and Motorenfabrik Berlin-Marienfelde, which merged with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1902. A DMG sales brochure of 1900 describes the bus as follows:
“Our electric hotel bus shown above is the carriage par excellence for any modern hotel! Its advantages include noiseless and odorless travel, excellent steering and control, and, in addition, the quality that it is always ready to go. During short stops, for instance while waiting at the train station or in front of the hotel, the driver can leave it entirely unsupervised, perfectly safely, since the motor is stopped and, by withdrawing a key from the emergency stop switch, the driver makes the braked vehicle inoperable for any unauthorized person who is not in possession of the key.”
When commercial vehicle development chief A. H. Müller-Berner and engineer P. Strifler presented the OE 302 diesel-electric hybrid urban bus in Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift in 1970 – marking the beginning of the development of alternative drive systems at Daimler-Benz – in their introduction they recalled a forerunner from the year 1899. The bus, lettered “Kaiser Hotel” and strongly reminiscent of a horse-drawn coach, came from Motorfahrzeug- and Motorenfabrik Berlin-Marienfelde, which merged with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1902. A DMG sales brochure of 1900 describes the bus as follows:

“Our electric hotel bus shown above is the carriage par excellence for any modern hotel! Its advantages include noiseless and odorless travel, excellent steering and control, and, in addition, the quality that it is always ready to go. During short stops, for instance while waiting at the train station or in front of the hotel, the driver can leave it entirely unsupervised, perfectly safely, since the motor is stopped and, by withdrawing a key from the emergency stop switch, the driver makes the braked vehicle inoperable for any unauthorized person who is not in possession of the key.”

And there were several such electric buses plying busy Friedrichstraße in those days, as an enclosed photograph shows. Under favorable conditions they attained a range of 40 kilometers and a top speed of 18 km/h and could be had for a price of about 12,500 marks.


Electric hotel bus built by Motorfahrzeuge- und Motorenfabrik Berlin-Marienfelde (purchased by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in 1902) in Berlins Friedrichstrasse, 1899.


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