The Italian transport operator ATM Milano plans to remove all diesel buses from the city by 2030; and as the first major step towards achieving this, the company launched a call for tenders for the supply of up to 250 electric buses for Milan a few months ago.

The contract, which was awarded to the Polish company Solaris (a member of the CAF Group) and its Urbino electric bus, consists of a framework agreement worth about 192 million euros; the delivery of the first batch (comprising
40 buses) is expected to start in June 2020.

The Urbino 12 electric city bus — Solaris’s flagship product — is already in operation in many cities in 17 European countries.

Moreover, also won what is commonly regarded as the most prestigious award in the bus industry — ‘Bus of the Year 2017’.

It is a 12m-long electric bus equipped with Solaris high-energy batteries with a total capacity exceeding 240kWh.

The batteries can be charged via a pantograph system and via a plug-in connection at the bus depot.

The CAF Group (www.caf.net) completed the acquisition of Solaris in September 2018.

With a turnover of more than 450 million euros in 2018, Solaris delivered 1,226 vehicles last year, including conventional models (diesel and CNG) and e-mobility vehicles.

The company offers a wide range of public-transport solutions, including hybrid buses, trolley-buses, full-battery buses and vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.