Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), the public transport operator for the Barcelona metropolitan area has ordered 24 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses, which will arrive by the end of 2022. The value of the contract, concluded as a result of a tender, stands at more than €12 million.
The public already has 19 articulated Urbino 18 electric buses; this bus family will grow by 24 standard-length units,—i.e., the Urbino 12 electric buses.
The vehicles to be delivered to the capital city of Catalonia will be powered by Solaris High Energy batteries with a total capacity of more than 400 kWh. They will be recharged both by means of a pantograph and plug-in technology. The buses will be powered by an electric central motor.
Their additional equipment will include automatic driver assistance systems such as the Mobileye Shield+ and the MirrorEye systems. The former allows risks related to the vehicle’s blind spot to be eliminated. With cameras placed on both sides, the driver receives warnings of pedestrians and cyclists located nearby.
The MirrorEye is, in turn, a system of cameras that replace the rear- and side-view mirrors. Apart from ensuring optimal visibility regardless of weather conditions, as well as at night, they also reduce the total width of the bus, which is particularly important on narrow streets or with increased road traffic. Moreover, the buses will feature a passenger counting device that will allow the carrier to collect data on passenger flows in buses.
Solaris vehicles first made their way to the fleet of the operator TMB in 2015. All of the Solaris vehicles the carrier has ordered feature hybrid or electric drives. The last order carried out for the client was the delivery of 14 Urbino 18 electric buses in 2020 and 2021.