This February, the carrier from Aschaffenburg signed a contract for the purchase of a total of 12 Solaris H₂ buses. The ordered 10 Urbino 12 H₂ vehicles and the 2 18-metre buses will roll out onto the streets of this German city as soon as 2024. The contract signed with Aschaffenburg is also the manufacturer’s first order for the articulated version of these H₂-powered buses.

The H₂ needed to propel the vehicles is stored in gaseous form in tanks, mounted on the front part of the vehicle’s roof. The Urbino 12 H₂ units will be equipped with a 70-kW set of fuel cells, while the Urbino 18 H₂ buses will boast a 100-kW fuel cell module. At moments of increased electricity demand, the fuel cell will be boosted by a Solaris High Power battery, or two of them, depending on the bus length, each with a capacity of 30 kWh.

As standard, the vehicle’s interior will feature air conditioning, cameras monitoring the passenger compartment and the immediate vicinity of the bus, as well as an advanced passenger communication system. Moreover, thanks to an automatic passenger counting system, the driver will always be kept informed as to the number of passengers currently onboard. A spacious area for the simultaneous transport of a wheelchair and a pram/pushchair or a bike has also been envisaged. Moreover, the vehicles will boast USB ports to recharge mobile devices.

In addition, the buses destined for Aschaffenburg will be equipped with advanced systems, such as cameras in lieu of mirrors or the MobileEye Shield+ system, which alerts the driver every time an unexpected object is detected in the vicinity of the bus. Continuous servicing of the vehicles will be provided by eSConnect, a bus fleet monitoring and management system designed by Solaris.

H₂ buses are an essential part of Solaris’s e-mobility offering and an attractive proposition for towns and cities that are striving to achieve zero-emission public transport systems. Since its launch in autumn 2022, the Urbino 18 H₂ model has enjoyed growing interest across the European market. As for Solaris Urbino 12 H₂ buses, out of over 200 units ordered to-date, 100 vehicles already ply routes in e.g., Bolzano in Italy, Cologne and Wuppertal in Germany, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands, and in the city of Konin in Poland.