Bratislava orders 4 Solaris hydrogen buses; Solaris signs contract for 2,000th e-bus
31 July 2022
The Slovakian carrier Dopravný podnik Bratislava (DPB) has opted for four hydrogen buses to be manufactured and delivered by Solaris. This is the first order placed under a framework agreement. These buses will be the first hydrogen buses in Slovakia. According to a framework agreement concluded by DPB with the bus maker, the Slovakian carrier may eventually order up to 40 hydrogen buses. The first four Urbino 12 hydrogen vehicles will be delivered in July next year.
The heart of the Urbino 12 hydrogen bus is a 70 kW fuel cell pack. The hydrogen system also features auxiliary devices, for instance to supply hydrogen and air at an adequate pressure to recirculate hydrogen that has not been used up, and also to maintain a proper and stable temperature of the fuel cells during operation.
Urbino 12 Hydrogen in Köln, Germany
Electricity generated during operation of the vehicle in the fuel cell is passed on directly to the driveline. The hydrogen is stored in gaseous form in composite tanks placed on the bus roof.
Separately, Solaris announced that it recently signed a contract for its 2,000th electric bus.
Orders for these 2,000 Urbino electric vehicles have been placed by carriers from more than 140 towns and cities in 21 European countries. More than 1,300 vehicles out of this pool have already been delivered and enhance public transport. Another 700 electric units will be manufactured this year or in the years to follow.
Electric Urbino vehicles bolster modern and environmentally friendly transport in such cities as Berlin, Bolzano, Brussels, Cluj-Napoca, Cracow, Landshut, Madrid, Milan, Oslo, Paris, Warsaw and Venice.
Solaris launched the first 8.9-meter Urbino electric bus in 2011. The Urbino 12 electric bus has been manufactured since 2012. A year later, the articulated Urbino 18 electric bus was unveiled. In 2019, a platform for the bi-articulated Urbino 24 electric was developed, and in 2020 the Urbino 15 LE electric was launched as the first intercity e-bus in Solaris’ electric range. In 2021, 10 years after the launch of its predecessor, the latest electric bus was presented to the public: the Urbino 9 LE electric.
Solaris manufactures more than 1,500 buses annually, with nearly half of these featuring fully or partly electric drives.
Getting to serious numbers of electric buses in Europe, following in the footsteps of China.
My own view is that public transport in cities should be free, or at public expense or whatever you want to call it, with the cost on private cars, which are not adequately charged even for the space roads take up, water run off and so on.
A considerable amount of the stuff which is supposedly ' the most economic and convenient solution' is so only by courtesy of wasting and polluting resources.
At one time the solution to human waste was, supposedly, to throw it out of the window.
That is fine for the individual in the house, not so great for everyone else.
I would argue that a better solution than very expensive, supposedly energy efficient cars, is to get people out of them, by and large.
Subsidise a bike, not a Tesla.
Electric buses are enormously more efficient in their use of resources, including roadspace, than private cars, including electric ones.
Posted by: Davemart | 31 July 2022 at 01:40 AM