Germany: Solaris to deliver 15 H2 buses to the Oberbergische Land region

According to a recent press release from OVAG, it ordered 15 Urbino 12 Hydrogen buses from Solaris last year. It is the Polish manufacturer’s twelve-metre-long solo bus model with fuel cell drive; the fuel cell has an output of 70 kW, but is supported by a battery for higher power requirements. Solaris also offers an 18-metre articulated bus version, the Urbino 18 Hydrogen, and battery-electric drives are also available for both variants.

The first five H2 buses will be delivered at the beginning of 2025, and the rest during the first quarter of 2025. In the initial phase, the buses will be refuelled via a mobile refuelling station solution. The construction and operation of a stationary hydrogen refuelling station will be put out to tender “shortly,” so it go into operation in 2026. “With the stationary refuelling station, it will one day be possible to refuel the entire bus fleet at the Wipperfürth-Hämmern site with hydrogen,” says OVAG in the press release.

The Urbino 12 hydrogen’s stated range of around 350 kilometres will be “very good” for most of OVAG’s typical vehicle rotations. However, there are also a few metres of altitude to overcome in the Oberberg district, so the practical range is likely lower. However, a practical test carried out in 2023 with buses from several manufacturers was convincing: “The hydrogen buses were particularly impressive when it came to overcoming altitude kilometres and their range,” says the operator.

OVAG, which is owned by the eleven towns and municipalities in the region east of Cologne, operates over 50 bus routes in the Oberberg district with around 200 of its own and rented buses. The German Federal Ministry of Transport subsidises the purchase of the 15 fuel cell buses with 4.3 million euros.

ovaginfo.de (in German), solarisbus.com