Szczecin orders eight articulated Solaris e-buses

The Polish city of Szczecin has ordered eight articulated electric buses from Solaris. The 18-metre electric buses will be delivered to the local bus company SPAK until September 2021. The order is worth the equivalent of around eight million euros.

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The electric bendy buses for Szczecińskie Przedsiębiorstwo Autobusowe Klonowica in the city of Szczecin will have onboard batteries with a storage capacity of 182 kWh, which can be charged overnight by plugging them in or on the road by means of a pantograph with a capacity of up to 560 kW. According to Solaris, a special feature of the eight units is a photovoltaic cell mounted on the roof, which serves as an additional energy source for the passenger information system.

The Szczecin bus company will also use Solaris’ bus fleet management system eSConnect. In addition to coordinating and maintaining the buses, the software enables, among other things, real-time monitoring of the fleet including its technical vehicle parameters.

Solaris and Szczecin have been working together since 2004, when the Polish manufacturer has delivered more than 150 buses to the city of 400,000 inhabitants. Among them are also buses with hybrid drive. The current order is the first time that the buses are purely electrically powered. “Szczecin will thus become member of the eminent group of nearly 40 Polish cities that are already using the transport of the future,” said Petros Spinaris, Deputy Chairman of Solaris.

The orders for Solaris from domestic Poland just keep lining up: only in August, the manufacturer received an electric bus order from Sosnowiec. The municipal public transport company ordered nine Urbino 12 electric solo buses and five Urbino 18 electric articulated buses. Shortly before, Katowice ordered another five, Poznan 37, Cracow 50, Lublin 12 and Jaworzno 20 new electric buses from Solaris.

Update 12 April 2021: After Szczecin ordered eight articulated electric buses from Solaris last year, this has been followed up with an order for six electric solo buses. According to Solaris, the six Urbino 12 electric buses will be delivered to Szczecin within 12 months. The order is worth 3.65 million euros.

Szczecin has opted for relatively small batteries with only 120 kWh in each bus. On the other hand, the batteries can be charged with both cable and plug, as well as at pantograph charging stations with up to 560 kW.

The solo buses will also have solar modules on the roof to generate electricity for some onboard components.

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