The Italian central purchasing body Consip S.p.A. Roma has placed an order for 7 zero-emission Urbino 12 electric buses from Solaris. The vehicles will be delivered to AMTS Catania, the company that manages the city bus network in the Sicilian city of Catania, situated at the foot of Mount Etna. They will be the first electric buses delivered by Solaris to this Italian island.
“We were very glad to receive the news that the passenger transport fleet in Sicily will be enriched by 7 state-of-the-art e-buses. We are happy that we can contribute to equipping another island in the Mediterranean with this zero-emission, environmentally neutral technology. These are tourist hotspots, visited by hordes of people from all over the world. Catania will have yet another reason to be proud”, said Petros Spinaris, member of the Management Board of Solaris, for Sales, Marketing and After Sales.
The Urbino 12 electric buses set to ply Sicilian routes will be powered by an electric central traction motor. The vehicles will be equipped with modern Solaris High Energy batteries with a total capacity of over 350 kWh. Thanks to these high energy density batteries the vehicles will be able to cover long distances. They will ensure all-day operability on the normal routes of the buses, which will allow them to be charged in the depot after finishing work so that the next day they are ready to operate again. Along with every vehicle, one stationary plug-in charging station will be delivered.
Each e-bus due to run on the streets of Catania will be able to carry 88 passengers, including 26 people seated. The electric vehicles will feature a video surveillance system. For passengers’ comfort, destination blinds with a voice announcement system will be mounted. In order to adjust the urban transport system even better to the needs of its users, the vehicles will boast a passenger counting system. In order to streamline the monitoring and management of the zero-emission fleet, Solaris will also implement the eSConnect system. This cutting-edge software offers such functionalities as access to vehicle data in real-time as well as identification of any faults as they occur. The vehicles will be painted red and blue, the colors of the operator AMTS Catania.
So far, Solaris has delivered over 200 e-buses to the Italian cities of Bolzano, Bergamo, Milan and Venice. Moreover, 12 hydrogen buses providing passenger transport services in Bolzano also feature an electric drive.
