TMB to buy 210 hybrid and electric buses for Barcelona

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) has launched a tender for 210 low-emission buses as part of its fleet renewal plan. The transit company divided the tender into five lots with a total value of 116 million euros.

In two lots, TMB focuses entirely on all-electric buses. They seek to buy 29 articulated buses and 49 single deck e-buses, all with pantographs. TMB will also procure 108 natural gas hybrid buses (85 solo and 23 articulated buses) and 24 double-decker buses with hybrid-electric drive systems. The new vehicles are set to replace the 210 buses that will reach the end of their life between this year and 2025, TMB says.

The new order builds on an earlier announcement back in May 2019, when the Catalan metropolis announced plans to purchase 254 greener buses with ta loan from the European Investment Bank. Transports Metropolitans wants their active fleet to run on natural gas and electricity entirely by 2030.

The new tender covers about half their procurement needs for the next four years, estimated at 410 units, of which 62% will be zero-emission.

The new 29 all-electric buses will join an existing fleet of 23 articulated e-buses to arrive in Barcelona this year. Solaris and Irizar are making these. TMB also already runs seven e-buses of this kind on route H16 and aim to electrify all three urban lines, including the H12 and V15.

The 24 double-decker buses with diesel-electric hybrid drive are to replace the vehicles serving for Barcelona Bus Turístic.

TMB President, Rosa Alarcón, said that TMB has set aside 400 million euros over the next six years with investments to include “the necessary infrastructure and the promotion of hydrogen and biogas as green energies.”

Only last September, TMB ordered eight fuel cell buses from the Portuguese manufacturer Caetano Bus. The announcement at the time included plans to build a hydrogen plant on a 5,000-square-metre-site. TMB was thinking to “potentially” open the filling stations to third parties. Barcelona does not have a hydrogen filling station for commercial vehicles to date. The hydrogen buses shall arrive in Barcelona this November to enter service in early 2022.

sustainable-bus.com, tmb.cat (in Catalan)