Follow up orders for Volvo hybrid and electric buses

Volvo Buses has received two follow-up orders for hybrid and electric buses. While the Belgian capital Brussels has ordered 128 hybrid vehicles, the Norwegian city of Drammen has ordered another 22 Volvo fully-electric buses.

The Belgian capital, to which Volvo has already delivered 110 hybrid buses since 2018, is now placing a new order with public transport operator STIB-MIVB for another 128 hybrid buses. The 7900 Hybrid vehicles should be delivered in 2021. According to the manufacturer, the order includes not only the buses but also options for servicing and maintenance of the vehicles and the batteries.

Håkan Agnevall, President of Volvo Buses, described it as “very inspiring” that Brussels and STIB-MIVB are “continuing the development of a sustainable public transport system” even in Corona times. “Sustainability will remain at the top of the cities’ agenda in the future,” said Agnevall. The hybrid drive is expected to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 25 to 40 per cent compared to a pure diesel bus, while particle and nitrogen oxide emissions are to be reduced by 50 per cent. The 7900 Hybrid can travel short distances of up to 20 km/h purely electrically, after which the diesel engine is automatically switched on.

Up north in Norway, the Volvo buses that are to go into operation in Drammen this year will not produce any local emissions at all. There, public transport users have already been able to experience the fully-electric Volvo buses since six Volvo battery-electric buses have already been in operation since the beginning of 2019. Now the operator Vy Buss has ordered 22 more electric buses from Volvo. In the city of 70,000 inhabitants southwest of Oslo, line 51 has so far been fully electrified and equipped with pantograph rapid chargers.

The exact models are not known; the first order is for the 7900 Electric. According to the specialist website Sustainable Bus, the new order will also include two units of the Volvo 7900 EA (Electric Articulated) articulated electric bus. The manufacturer only presented the articulated bus for up to 150 passengers at Busworld 2019 last October.

volvobuses.com (Brussels), sustainable-bus.com (Drammen)