Nobina, a major Swedish transport operator, has awarded the CAF Group a contract to supply 88 Solaris electric urban and intercity buses. In this case, the operator has opted to purchase 55 Urbino 15 LE units for the Skåne region, 15 similar units for the Värmland region, and finally 18 Urbino 18 articulated units to serve the Swedish city of Malmö. These units are scheduled to be delivered between 2024 and 2025. The contract is worth in excess of €50 million.
Solaris has secured a new order for electric buses in Sweden, just a short time after winning various contracts last year. These previous deals included supplying 55 Urbino 15 LE electric buses to the same operator to run in Stockholm, as well as 23 electric buses for the city of Kristianstad. This has solidified Solaris' position as a key player in providing environmentally friendly urban transport solutions in this country.
The Solaris Urbino 15 LE model, a three-axle vehicle suited for both urban and intercity routes, will be supplied for the Skåne and Värmland regions. This vehicle will feature the so-called Scandinavian package designed to withstand Sweden's challenging climate, enabling all-day operation and overnight charging by means of a plug-in system. The Solaris Urbino 18 units are an articulated bus model featuring modular drive and state-of-the-art battery technology which will operate in Malmö, one of Sweden's largest cities.
As Europe's transport sector undergoes vigorous electrification, Solaris has emerged as the continent's leading electric transport supplier, having supplied the most zero-emission buses since 2012.
Solaris secures new hydrogen bus contract in Germany
It is also worth noting that Solaris has recently won a new order for hydrogen buses. In this case, it will supply 15 12-metre units to the German operator Oberbergische Verkehrgesellschaft (OVAG), which will be used to bolster the bus fleet for the German city of Gummersbach, located in the eastern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
With this deal, Solaris has solidified its position as the leading manufacturer of hydrogen-powered vehicles in the European market, with virtually one in every two hydrogen city buses registered having been manufactured by Solaris. A telling example of this is the contracts recently secured in Germany for the supply of these types of vehicle in cities such as Frankfurt, Essen, Cologne and Gross-Gerau.