April 24, 2021. Grupo CAF, through its subsidiary Solaris, has been awarded a contract in Madrid, Spain, for the delivery of 250 Solaris Urbino 12 buses fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG), which represents the first major company bus contract in the capital for 75 million euros.
The Municipal Transport Company of Madrid (EMT), the largest public transport operator in Spain and the second in Europe, has been the body in charge of this tender within the framework of its commitment to have exclusively electric, hybrid and CNG buses by the year 2023.
In this way, the EMT foresees the replacement of the current fleet of diesel vehicles by CNG buses, for which it launched a tender to buy 520 12-meter CNG-fueled vehicles, of which 250 will be delivered by Solaris with a schedule of deliveries until 2023, although the first units will be ready before the end of this year, around 91 buses.
The buses acquired will have a 239 kilowatt (kW) engine adapted to use natural gas. Five CNG storage tanks with a total capacity of 1,575 liters will be mounted at the front of the vehicle’s roof, which will allow a range of 400 kilometers with a single refill.
EMT has opted for high-quality equipment both in the cabin – in which up to 100 passengers can travel – and in the driver’s cabin, including, among others, a passenger information system, USB ports to recharge their mobile devices and a video surveillance system to improve security.
