Mercedes-Benz OC 500 LE

The Mercedes-Benz OC 500 LE is a modular, heavy-duty, twin-axle bus chassis built by Mercedes-Benz and EvoBus Ibérica in Spain as a platform for low-entry city, suburban and intercity buses, with a maximum gross vehicle weight of 19.1 tonnes. It is assembled from modules for the driver's pedestal, front axle, centre section, drive axle and a horizontally mounted rear engine, and shares much with the chassis of the Citaro integral bus and the raised-floor OC 500 RF coach chassis. It began with Euro III OM 457 hLA six-cylinder diesel engines of 11.967 litres, was upgraded to Euro IV, Euro V and EEV standards with AdBlue emission control, gained a compressed natural gas version with the M 447 hLAG engine, and is offered with the 7.7-litre OM 936 where Euro VI applies. Brazil builds a related but different low-entry chassis, the O 500 U. Large fleets run in Australia, including 540 Volgren-bodied buses at Transperth and 275 for Sydney Buses, and in Singapore, where SMRT bought 134. Perth suffered CNG bus fires and Australia saw a 2009 recall of 443 CNG units.