Dubai orders 400 new MAN Lion’s City buses

An agreement has been made between MAN Truck & Bus, United Motors & Heavy Equipment Co. LLC, the exclusive distributor of the company’s products in the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) for the acquisition of exactly 400 new MAN Lion’s City solo city buses equipped with diesel engines. The delivery contract was signed at the UITP 2025 World Congress held in Hamburg from June 15 to 18. The handover of the vehicles is expected to begin in October 2025, with their deployment anticipated for January 2026.

Dubai’s public transport is on the brink of significant changes: under the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, the share of public transport in travel modes is to be increased to 25% by the end of the decade, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050. In line with this, the RTA recently initiated the procurement of a total of 636 new buses, including 40 fully electric and 50 diesel buses to be supplied by the Chinese company Zhongtong, and an additional 70 diesel articulated buses ordered from Anadolu Isuzu. The newly concluded 400-bus deal with MAN and United Motors fits into this series of procurements.

The 12-meter-long solo buses to be supplied by MAN will feature 35 seats and are powered by a six-cylinder, 9037 cm³ displacement, 330 horsepower (243 kW), Euro 6 compliant MAN D1556 LOH diesel engine. Their safety equipment includes ESP, lane departure warning, emergency brake assist (EBA), frontal collision warning, and radar-based turning assistance. The vehicles meet the requirements for both M3/I and M3/II vehicle classes, and comply with UN ECE 36 and UN ECE 107 regulations for general bus construction, as well as UN ECE 118 fire safety and the UN ECE 66.02 rollover protection standards, the latter is non-mandatory for city buses.

The signatories of the delivery contract in Hamburg. Front row, left to right: Khalifa Saif Darwish, CEO of United Motors, and Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO of RTA. Back row, left to right: Barbaros Oktay, Head of MAN’s Bus Division, and Matar Al Tayer, Chairman of the RTA Board (Photo: MAN Truck & Bus)

MAN bus models are considered popular in the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates. The collaboration between United Motors and the RTA began in 2007 with an order for 75 solo, 150 articulated, and 170 double-decker Neoplan Centroliner city buses, most of which were delivered in 2008. Over a decade later, 79 Gemilang-bodied double-decker city buses built on MAN A95 chassis also arrived in the wealthy metropolis. Currently, the RTA’s fleet includes approximately 200 MAN or Neoplan branded buses, some of which have clocked nearly two million kilometers.

The cover image is an illustration, source: emirates247.com