Solaris delivers 7 Urbino 9 LE electric buses to Erlangen
16 December 2023
Solaris has delivered 7 Urbino 9 LE low-entry electric buses to the German city of Erlangen. This marks the first order from Germany for the brand’s shortest model.
This bus can also be used on suburban routes, providing flexibility to operators in managing their bus lines. The buses are powered by 100% green electricity and will run on the new CityLinie 299 route through the center of Erlangen. This is Solaris’ first order from this carrier.
Each of the Urbino 9 LE electric buses can accommodate 50 passengers, with 21 seats available for sitting passengers. An additional 2 seats are foldable. Powered by an electric motor, these vehicles draw their energy from batteries with a capacity of more than 250 kWh, placed both on the roof and at the rear of the bus. The electric Urbino buses are charged via classic plug-in connectors.
The buses are equipped with advanced systems like MirrorEye, which replaces traditional mirrors with cameras, improving driver visibility and minimizing the risk of accidents. There’s also a monitoring system onboard to enhance safety. Additionally, practical USB sockets are available for passenger convenience on the side walls. The proprietary eSConnect system enables fleet management by the transport operator, allowing real-time control of bus parameters and influencing their performance.
Solaris has an order portfolio that currently includes as many as 3,700 zero-emission buses, with 2,460 actively serving customer routes. Among them, battery models are predominant. Solaris electric buses are popular in Germany, where in 32 cities, there are already more than 370 battery-powered vehicles in operation.
Heated seats for bus drivers etc - I've just watched a Youtube vid posted by a first time London e-bus driver(employee) . Unfortunately he spends more time talking and complaining about the e-bus's heating (even when it's pumping out 25C in winter) than he does about anything else. I posted various relevant comments, questions and intelligent advice. Here's most of that gentle diatribe:
1) Surely e-buses are fitted with heated driver seats which warm the driver far more directly and efficiently without having to heat up the entire air-space of a double-decker bus to sub-tropical temperatures. More than 21C is not healthy and very wasteful - at home and at the workplace.
2) To keep warm and fit during a shift and every day anywhere - please try short exercising stints outside and in for just 7-8 minutes 3-4 times a day - expecially if you're a sedentary exercise-avoiding driver.
This will heat you up considerably and you'll be wanting to turn the vehicle's heat down to 15C max for an hour or so and open a window wide and take your coat/jacket off for a while.
3) Take a large thermos flask full of very hot just-boiled water to work with you so you can drink small cups of hot tea, coffee hot chocolate throughout your working day or bus-driving shifts.
Bottom line: use heated seats. If the e-buses (ridiculously!) aren't fitted with heated driver seats please ask your very clever bosses to demand that they be quickly retrofitted(for free) to save battery energy, extend range and less importantly - to keep heat-pampered drivers' warm and snug without draining the bus's battery and slashing range.
Paul G
Posted by: PaulGOVAN4 | 16 December 2023 at 03:59 AM