Unibuss AS, one of Norway's largest transport operators, has once again placed its trust in CAF Group with a contract to supply 183 Urbino 18 electric buses to Oslo. This contract is testament to the Norwegian capital city's commitment to electrifying the city's public transport system, following a call for tenders which received bids from leading companies in the sector. The contract is worth approximately €100 million and is the largest electric articulated bus contract awarded to Solaris to date, surpassing the 130 electric vehicles recently supplied to Warsaw's public transport operator MZA.
The chosen model for this contract is the fourth-generation Urbino 18 electric articulated bus, which was first introduced on the market in 2017 and has since enjoyed a great deal of success serving a large number of European cities, such as Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona, Warsaw, Krakow, Poznań and Hamburg.
Standout features include zero emissions and the ability to operate up to 24 hours a day, depending on the chosen equipment and infrastructure. The buses that will run on Oslo's streets will be fitted with High Energy batteries with a total capacity of over 500 kWh, which can be charged using a plug-in charger. The buses will also offer Oslo's citizens a wide range of amenities when travelling around the city, including USB chargers, special ambient lighting and a double ramp for persons with reduced mobility. In addition to this, given the current circumstances, special enhanced filters will be installed in the air conditioning system to provide greater passenger protection.
On the other hand, these electric buses will include with a wide range of systems to increase operating safety, equipping the vehicles with state-of-the-art technologies that will warn drivers of cyclists and pedestrians in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle as well as facilitating driving operating in narrow streets and at the depot.
Solaris' relationship with the operator Unibuss AS dates back to 2006. Since then, the CAF Group company has supplied close to 300 vehicles to this Norwegian operator, of a total of more than 500 Solaris Urbino units currently operating on the roads of this Nordic country.
Solaris secures two new contracts in Austria and Italy worth close to €50M
The CAF Group has also recently secured two new contracts for the supply of 5 hydrogen buses and 50 trolleybuses in Austria and Italy respectively, consolidating its position as a market leader in the supply of zer-emission vehicles in Europe.
The supply of hydrogen buses for Austria
ÖBB Postbus has reached an agreement with Solaris for the supply of five Urbino 12 hydrogen buses, which will serve the picturesque town of Villach in south-east Austria. This is the first order placed under the framework agreement entered into between the two companies at the beginning of 2021, with the option to purchase up to 40 of these vehicles.
Solaris is the leading European supplier of zero-emission solutions for urban transport vehicles, electric and hydrogen buses, and the hydrogen-powered Urbino 12 is currently the most high-tech vehicle in Solaris' product range. To date, approximately 100 units of this model has been sold in countries such as the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland and Sweden.
ATM Milano and Solaris extend their contract with a further 50 trolleybuses
The operator ATM Milano is currently transforming its fleet, with the goal of having a completely zero-emission fleet by the end of 2030. To this end, it has placed a new order with Solaris for the supply of 50 Trollino 18 model trolleybuses. This contract is an extension of the agreement entered into in 2018, for which Solaris first supplied 30 trolleybuses. CAF Group's collaboration with this Milanese operator has proved to be extremely important over recent years with the latest example being the supply of 165 Solaris Urbino electric buses to the Lombardy city.
This new order confirms Solaris' leadership in the electromobility sector in Italy, where more than half of the electric buses currently operating in Italian cities are CAF Group-supplied vehicles. In fact, in 2020, the company supplied almost 70 percent of the electric buses supplied in the transalpine country.