Mercedes-Benz OC500LE

The Mercedes-Benz OC500LE is a modular, heavy-duty bus chassis produced by Mercedes-Benz and EvoBus since late 2007, and for the UK market since 2010. It is a twin-axle, low-floor city bus available with a large number of bodies, making it one of Mercedes-Benz's most popular products. The engine is horizontally mounted over the rear overhang, maximising low-floor space, and a length of between 10.8 and 13.5 metres.
All OC500LEs are built at the Mercedes-Benz/EvoBus Iberia joint factory at Sámano in Spain. According to Mercedes-Benz, an articulated version of the OC500LE is coming soon to most markets. An articulated version partially based on the OC500LE called the O500UA is currently in limited production in Brazil, but is not available globally.
Currently, Mercedes-Benz only offer the ZF EcoLife six-speed automatic transmission in the OC500LE. Euro3, Euro4 and Euro5 engines are still available in the OC500LE for non-European markets, while only Euro6 Mercedes-Benz OM457hLA engines, using AdBlue and developing 299bhp, are available for European customers.
The OC500LE is currently supplementary to the popular existing Citaro (O530) family of buses, although Mercedes-Benz haven't ruled out the possibility of the OC500LE eventually replacing the Citaro. Production of both buses continues as of December 2014. The OC500LE chassis is designed to compete mainly with the Volvo B12BLE, MAN NL-series and Scania L94/K-series buses.
The majority of OC500LEs have been sold in Australia, with strong demand also coming from Singapore and Cyprus so far. Only tne OC500LEs have so far been sold in the United Kingdom in Ireland, all of them with MCV Evolution 2 bodies as of December 2014. It has proven more successful globally, with 526 OC500LEs being sold as of the same date.