Jaworzno buying more electric buses of Solaris! 80% of the fleet are emission-free

The public transport company Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Miejskiej in Jaworzno is buying another 20 electric buses. The vehicles will be produced by Solaris. The contract stipulates the delivery of 15 Urbino 12 electric and 5 low-floor Urbino 8,9 LE electric. Once the contract is completed 80% of the fleet painted in the colours of the operator in Jaworzno will be made up of electric Solaris buses.

There can only be one future for the transport in Jaworzno: electric vehicles. It was the city of Jaworzno where the first electric bus in Poland hit the road in 2015. Today, 23 electric buses painted in the operator PKM Jaworzno’s sky blue, are driving around the city. All of them were made by Solaris. Great performance parameters of e-buses and their quality have reaffirmed the operator in its conviction that it has taken the right path and that the future of public transport are electric vehicles. As a result of the contract for the delivery of another 20 battery buses, signed in the past few days, 80% of the fleet will consist of electric vehicles made by Solaris cruising the streets in Jaworzno.

PKM Jaworzno has decided to purchase 5 Urbino 8,9 LE electric and 15 Urbino 12 electric. Both models are well known to the residents of Jaworzno. According to the contract the low-floor 9-meter Solaris vehicles will be delivered to the operator by the end of this year, whereas the 12-meter Urbino electric buses will join the former ones in the first half of 2021.

All vehicles ordered by the customer will be fitted by Solaris with 160 kWh Solaris High Energy batteries. The operator PKM Jaworzno charges the batteries of its electric buses by means of pantograph chargers of up to 190 kW and via plug-in connectors. This will also be the case here. Both in the 9-metre and in the 12-metre version, the heart of the vehicle will be a 160 kW central electric motor.

Emission-free and extremely quiet e-buses will be equipped with modern solutions improving travel comfort of passengers such as USB charging ports and Wi-Fi Internet access. Safety will be ensured by CCTV cameras placed in the passenger compartment and in the driver’s cabin as well as devices monitoring the street during reversing manoeuvres and the pantograph when it is charging batteries. The comfortable and air-conditioned bus interior will fit 55 passengers in case of Urbino 8,9 LE and 75 persons when it comes to Urbino 12 electric.

The city of Jaworzno is consistently pursuing its strategy to gradually switch to an electric fleet and it is one of the leaders in the implementation of e-mobility Europe-wide. The operator invests not only in emission-free vehicles but also in the charging infrastructure. The „Centre of E-mobility” in Jaworzno is one of the most advanced bus depots in Europe. Depot charging stations in the facility allow for concurrent recharging of eight buses. The operator intends to purchase another five pantograph charging stations and ten plug-in charging stations for the depot under a separate order.

Photos: Maciej Kowal.