EMT Madrid places bus order with Solaris & Irizar
The public transport operator EMT Madrid has placed orders for 150 more electric standard buses. The Spanish manufacturer Irizar with 90 units of the 12-metre iebus and the Polish manufacturer Solaris with 60 Urbino 12 Electric are the winners of EMT’s largest electric tender to date.
The 150 electric buses have a total value of over 81 million euros. The new electric buses are to be added to EMT Madrid’s fleet this year and next. With the new order, 190 electric buses are to be in the fleet by the end of 2022, and 329 vehicles by the end of 2023.
As is well known, EMT Madrid wants to operate a completely emission-free bus fleet from 2033. As early as January 2023, no more diesel buses are to be in operation, and the routes will then only be served by electric and natural gas buses. In February 2022, EMT converted its 16th line to electric buses.
While the Spanish manufacturer Irizar has already received several orders from the capital in recent years, this is the first electric bus delivery to Madrid for Solaris. Besides Irizar, EMT had previously ordered electric buses from the Chinese manufacturer BYD.
Why Solaris was chosen this time instead of BYD is not made clear in the EMT Madrid press release. It merely lists a number of requirements that were important in the current tender. These include the maximum price of 550,000 euros per vehicle, the warranty, range and electricity costs or energy consumption. In addition, EMT lists criteria such as a telematics system, “compliance with EMT standards” and, last but not least, delivery time.
In addition to the procurement, the Madrid City Council has launched other projects: funding for 206 more electric buses was applied for from the EU’s “Next Generation” programme. It was also decided to convert the La Elipa depot into a “reference centre for a 100 percent electric fleet”. There, 318 electric buses are to be stationed and charged via electricity from a large PV system.
sustainable-bus.com, emtmadrid.es (PDF in Spanish)
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