OREANDA-NEWS. The Daimler subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz do Brasil, has won major orders from four local transport services in a tender from Brasilia's municipal government for renewal of the fleet of public passenger transport vehicles. The total order includes 2,100 Mercedes-Benz bus chassis, which are now being delivered. The fleet of the metropolitan region is to be updated by December 2013.

The transportation companies in Brasilia have a total of 3,300 buses in local public passenger transport, which are to be successively replaced by the new vehicles. Thus, the total fleet will be comprised of over 60 percent new bus chassis by Mercedes-Benz.

Hartmut Schick, Head of Daimler Buses: "Large orders like these are a growth driver for our bus business. We can be satisfied with the development of unit sales during the year. With a plus of 16 percent we have sold around 8,700 units in Latin America in the first half year."

The demand for environmentally-friendly, economical and safe means of transportation is rising, also with a view to the upcoming sports events in Brazil. As preparation for the increased traffic for the 2014 World Soccer Championship and the Olympic Games in 2016, Bazil's large cities are updating their fleets for local public passenger transport. Mercedes-Benz do Brasil already profited from a series of large orders last year. The municipal transport services in Fortaleza in Northeastern Brazil and Ribeirao Preto in the province of Sao Paulo ordered a total of 520 Mercedes-Benz urban buses in 2012. Last year's orders included 90 articulated buses for the innovative Bus Rapid Transit Transportation System (BRT) in Rio de Janeiro.

"Such transportation concepts with separate bus lanes for rapid transit transport of passengers play an important role not least due to the sport events in Brazil", explained Hartmut Schick, adding: "Nine of the twelve cities, in which world championship games will be played, are relying on the BRT system - and many transport operators rely on us. Thus, the BRT market penetration with Mercedes-Benz urban buses in Brazil is at about 70 percent."