Solaris, the polish bus manufacturer recently received an order from the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) for thirty-eight hydrogen-powered buses. These buses have been ordered with the intention to deploy them within the city of Barcelona and have them in operation as soon as possible.

The order has been scheduled for 2024 and it will include thirty-six Urbino 12 vehicles, as well as two units of the Urbino 18-metre articulated hydrogen buses. TMB already owns 130 Solaris vehicles and these newest vehicles will be a welcome addition to their fleet. These Urbino 12 hydrogen buses will include 70kW fuel cells, whereas the Urbino 18-metre buses will have 100kW of output power. Along with these features, both buses will be made with a small Solaris High Power traction battery, which has been added to act as the auxiliary function. Furthermore, the buses have been designed to use ‘state-of-the-art’ solutions, which are well-known to TMB employees and passengers in Barcelona. These functions include efficient air conditioning systems, plus USB ports and will hopefully encourage more people to use the buses, due to the increased convenience they will provide to customers and to the environment.

This order is another project which helps Solaris expand its already vast customer database. So far, Solaris has delivered more than 120 hydrogen-powered units to various customers who are located throughout eight different countries, these include Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland. One of the largest orders the company has received was from an Italian operator, which was made in September of 2023 and 900 buses have been delivered to Spain, with these including five Urbino 12 hydrogen units going to Palma de Mallorca. It was in 2015 that Solaris received their first order from TMB in Barcelona and their vehicles were added to TMB’s fleet. This made Barcelona one of the first cities to deploy the Urbino 18 electric buses.

These buses have been available for order and deployment since 2021, which is when Carburos Metálicos and Solaris presented the Urbino 12 hydrogen buses in Tarragona, Spain. The purpose of this event was to test and develop an effective and efficient hydrogen refuelling network, which would effectively support the buses’ implementation. Since then, it has become clear that this system is very necessary as these buses work well and are proving popular and effective. The most recent order from Barcelona highlights how rapidly Solaris is growing and completing orders and significantly benefitting the environment.