A Merc for the masses

The 1826 LE is essentially based on the Mercedes-Benz O-500 U low-entry chassis from Brazil, but features the 7.2 litre OM 926 engine from the O-500 M chassis (on which the 1830 two-axle coach is built), significantly derated to 252 hp (305) @ 2200 rpm and 900 Nm (1200) @ 1200–1600 rpm. This is evidently to achieve the superior fuel efficiency that Hartmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses, claimed at the launch of the bus last fortnight.

Mercedes-Benz only builds and sells monocoque buses by itself — in most markets worldwide, it supplies chassis to bodybuilders, who sell the buses under their own brands. India is one of the few markets in which it sells bodyworked chassis itself. The city buses will be built in a factory on the Mercedes-Benz India premises in Chakan near Pune, which is a joint investment with MCV of Cairo, Egypt.

At least partly owned by Daimler (the exact holding is unclear), Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles (MCV) is the OEM’s most committed partner in the Middle East, building Mercedes-Benz trucks and bus bodies for markets across the region and countries the company wouldn’t normally do business in on its own behalf, such as Cuba.

The MCV C125 RLE model for India is an evolution of the low-entry bus the company sells in the British market based on the European-spec OC 500 LE chassis or, alternatively, the B7RLE that underpins Volvo’s 7400 city bus we are familiar with in India. At Rs 90 lakh, the base version is priced up to 20 percent higher than the Volvo.

The bodystyle bears striking similarities to MAN city buses of an earlier generation. The rear, in fact, is a spitting image of that on the NeoplanCentroliner’s final generation before that model was discontinued a couple of years ago. The design has some significant disadvantages — for one, the 350mm floor height means the cubic front wheel arches protrude rather prominently into the passenger cabin, allowing no passenger seats in this section.

Together with a tangibly lower ceiling, they also contribute to feeling of claustrophobia when the bus is full of standing passengers, as it will certainly be when it is put into service in Indian cities. There are five less passenger seats than in Volvo’s 7400, although the seats in the raised rear section are arranged in three horizontal steps, unlike those in the Volvo, which has a sloping floor and uncomfortable, forward-sloping seats.

The driver gets his own partitioned-off work area with an adjustable steering wheel and Supreme Eco air-suspended seat with three-point restraint belt from Italian supplier Pilot. The passenger seats, supplied by Pinnacle, are of a Vogelsitze design. The powder-coated grab rails have textured surfaces for a more comfortable grip.

The unique bodybuilding concept, mirroring the one MCV uses to build Mercedes-Benz buses in Egypt, emulates the construction of a monocoquebodyshell. Founder and MD KarimGhabbour drew attention to his company’s design principles that “target the integration of chassis and body for maximum strength and minimum weight”.

The skeleton of the C125RLE is built onto the long member of the chassis supplied from MB India next door, not on a rolling chassis. The rest of the knocked-down O-500 U kit, i.e. the powertrain and axles, are only installed into the fully painted shell.

An 80µ film of galvanically active zinc-rich primer sprayed on before painting better protects the entire structure against corrosion than the galvanised steel in Volvo’s bus frames, in which the protection of the weld joints is compromised by the evaporation of zinc due to the heat of the welding process.