Irizar expands in Portugal with new order from Guimarães
Spain’s Irizar has announced an order from Guimarães, Portugal. However, local operator Guimabus has opted for 17 electric buses and nine chargers from Irizar alongside 26 new diesel buses.
We will focus on electric buses in the order. Irizar says the operator opted for the company’s 12-metre ie model. The contract also includes nine 150 kWh chargers from Jema Energy, an Irizar Group company, for slow charging the buses at the depot overnight.
Guimarães, in the Minho region of northern Portugal, is also known as the “cradle of the nation.” Being a UNESCO world heritage site, the town sees many travellers. Irizar points out that Guimabus runs the mass transit services for most tourists in the municipality.
The Irizar ie buses coming to the city, can seat 40 passengers and have 434 kW of onboard energy. Depending on the configuration, most ie models offer about 250 km on a single charge.
While the order includes diesel buses, the Irizar Group says it is strategically committed to battery and fuel cell technologies to achieve zero emissions. The latest development efforts aim to install hydrogen options for routes that require longer ranges, but we have yet to see such a vehicle.
At the same time, Irizar last relaunched the ie electric bus at the end of 2019. Furthermore, the company also opened an eMobility plant in the northern Spanish city of Aduna in 2018. Already at the inauguration, Irizar expressed its intention to produce e-buses and other electric utility vehicles there. Against this background, the manufacturer presented an electric truck called Irizar ie truck and recently announced the first order. With Irizar e-mobility, the manufacturer has its division for “turnkey e-mobility solutions”.
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