The first articulated bus was completed at BYD's factory in Komárom, Hungary by early May 2024. It is a BYD B18 type, which is shorter than usual at just 18.1 metres long. The Hungarian factory is also going to produce the B19, which will have a standard length of 18.75 metres.
This bus was built for demonstration purposes only and is not part of a specific order. It was tested for a short time in Budapest in early May, before being taken to Slovenia's capital Ljubljana for a two-week testing period. It arrived to Miskolc at the end of May. MVK tested it without passengers for the first few days and soon announced its timetable. The test took place in two phases and covered most of the city's articulated bus lines. The first test period ran from 29 May to 4 June and the second from 9 June to 14 June. The second test period was eventually extended by three days, so that the first electric articulated bus in the history of Miskolc was on the streets for the last time on 17 June. Interestingly, it was running with stickers from Ljubljana both inside and outside. I can't imagine why they didn't remove the huge Slovenian decals from the side of the bus, if it was only there for a two-week trial, and probably won't return.
The bus has the largest battery available, with a capacity of 511 kWh, so there were days when it worked all day on a full duty from dawn to late evening continuously on a single charge. If this bus can do that, then you can really say that this is a fully capable bus.
I have a generally positive opinion of the bus. It is obviously very close to the solo version operated by MVK, it's really only the articulated construction that is new here. I really liked the hinge, it's nice and spacious, and you can sit on it quite comfortably. The latter is probably not its intended use, but if you don't have a seat it can come in handy, similar to the handrail on the MAN SG263s. What I also liked is that there are LED indicators built directly into the stop request buttons. So if one door is indicated, all the stop request buttons for that door will light up. What is a strong negative is the air conditioning. Around the second door, the passenger gets hypothermia, while in the back, you can get toasted. This is not a very good reference, I hope this will not be the case in the series production models. Other than that, it's really an average modern bus. It does the job, nothing special.
This test was held at a pretty inconvenient time from my point of view, considering that I had a very limited free time due to the university exam period. In the first stage I only took 3 shots. For the second stage, however, I had a little more time free, and managed to collect enough footage for two compilations. In this part, you can see the shots from the North-South and East-West main lines, plus a section on line 53 on Magas-hegy. The next part will include footage taken on the lines serving Avas (32, 34, 35, 36), and there will also be a full-length riding video.
Content:
0:00 14 - Repülőtér/BOSCH
0:38 14 - Villanyrendőr (northbound)
1:18 14 - Vasúti felüljáró
1:34 14 - Szeles utca
1:53 14 - Villanyrendőr (southbound)
2:46 1 - Berekalja
3:24 1 - Diósgyőr
4:06 1 - Felső-Majláth
4:34 1 - Bulgárföld
4:47 1 - Felső-Majláth
5:41 1 - Diósgyőr
6:15 12 - Egyetemváros (University)
8:04 14 - Hejőcsaba
9:37 14 - Népkert
10:10 43 - Centrum
11:08 53 - Magas-hegy
11:33 44 - Southern Auchan
12:10 Riding - Interior shots
16:40 44 - Vörösmarty utca
16:49 12 - Egyetemváros (University)
17:09 From an MAN SG, coming towards us
17:15 1G - Berekalja (at night)