In Poland, Solaris has received another electric bus order from Kraków. The public transport company MPK Kraków ordered 20 electric buses from the Polish manufacturer: seven articulated Urbino 18 Electric buses and 13 Urbino 12 Electric solo buses. The vehicles are to be delivered in one year.
The new electric buses will reinforce the existing zero-emission fleet of Solaris buses, some of which already made their debut on the city’s streets in 2016. Solaris says the new electric buses will have Solaris High Energy batteries with a total capacity of almost 300 kWh in the solo buses and over 400 kWh in the articulated buses. Each bus will also be designed for charging by plug as well as by pantograph.
The electric buses offer space for 81 (solo buses) and 141 (articulated buses) passengers. The equipment includes video surveillance, a passenger information system, air conditioning as well as USB sockets and electric heating. The vehicles also have AVAS, an acoustic warning system for pedestrians.
The order value for the newest buses is about 70 million złoty (about 14.5 million euros). More than half of the investment will be co-financed with subsidies from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.
According to the company, Solaris vehicles have been in operation in Krakow for 25 years, in which time 550 Solaris vehicles have been put into operation in the city. Solaris says that the “lions-share” of these have had zero-emission drives. In June this year, MPK Kraków started tests of a hydrogen-powered Urbino 12 hydrogen. Most recently, Kraków Transport ordered a total of 50 electric articulated buses from Solaris in mid-2020, after 20 Solaris electric buses entered service in 2017.
Keyword: 20 electric Solaris buses ordered for Kraków