Protected All Around: The Safety Concept

• Front impact protection and crash-safe rear structure: passive safety with a system
• Proven assistance system portfolio as the foundation for active safety
• MMTI: greater driving stability through wheel-specific control
• New legal requirements as a driver of development

Safety is a central development objective for Daimler Buses with every new bus, including the next-generation eCitaro. The integrated safety concept, with its carefully coordinated combination of crash-resistant vehicle structure, advanced assistance systems, and new control systems such as MMTI (Modular Multi Torque Interface), helps ensure that drivers, passengers, and other road users are protected both in everyday operation and in critical situations.

Front Impact Protection and Crash-Safe Rear Structure: Passive Safety with a System

At the front, the new vehicle generation relies on Daimler Buses' proven front impact protection system as part of its integrated safety concept. A specially designed vehicle structure absorbs impact energy in a targeted manner and dissipates it in a controlled way to better protect the driver and passengers in the event of a collision. At the rear, the design follows an equally consistent logic. Defined crash zones extend along the sides and rear section of the vehicle up to a height of approximately 780 millimeters. Within these zones, high-voltage components are generally not installed unless they have been specifically designed to be crash-resistant, such as battery housings with their own structural protection function. For this reason, inverters, the rear battery distribution box, and the charging power distribution unit (Charge PDU) are deliberately positioned above or outside these crash zones. In this way, Daimler Buses ensures that safety-relevant high-voltage components remain protected even in the event of a rear-end collision. This concept has already proven itself in the current eCitaro and is being consistently continued in the new generation.

Proven Assistance Systems as the Foundation for Active Safety

The new city bus generation builds on the extensive safety assistance system portfolio that has already proven successful in the current eCitaro and other Daimler Buses model series. This includes the Preventive Brake Assist 2 active braking assistant with pedestrian detection, the radar-based Sideguard Assist 2 turning assistant, which can warn of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists on both sides and additionally functions as a lane-change assistant at higher speeds, and the Frontguard Assist system, which monitors the area immediately in front of the vehicle during start-off and maneuvering operations. Together with the standard reversing camera and, even more so, the optional 360-degree camera system (270-degree camera system for articulated buses), whose images are displayed on the secondary screen of the new cockpit, the driver receives a comprehensive information and warning system surrounding the bus. The system is complemented by a traffic sign assistant, a tire pressure monitoring system, and the camera-based Attention Assist 2, which detects signs of fatigue or distraction among driving personnel.

MMTI: Greater Driving Stability Through Wheel-Specific Control

In combination with the ZF AxTrax 2 LF electric portal axle, the low-floor version features the new MMTI system (Modular Multi Torque Interface). It controls the distribution of drive and braking forces individually and according to the driving situation across the driven wheels. This enhances driving stability, particularly in wet or icy conditions and during critical manoeuvres in dense urban traffic.

New Legal Requirements as a Driver of Development

One of the key drivers behind the new vehicle development is increasingly stringent legal safety requirements. This includes, in particular, Stage D of the General Safety Regulation for buses (GSR-D), which has required additional safety features for all new vehicle types since 2026 and will apply to all new registrations from 2029 onward. The next-generation eCitaro meets these requirements from the outset. With regard to the new Direct Vision Standard, the driver’s direct view of the immediate vehicle surroundings has been further improved. The slimmer instrument panel is one of the features contributing to this improvement.