10 Urbino 12 hydrogen and 2 Urbino 18 hydrogen buses have been chosen by the German company Stadtwerke Aschaffenburg Verkehrs GmbH out of a total of 12 Solaris hydrogen buses. For the 18-meter hydrogen-powered buses, which were introduced in the fall of last year, this is Solaris’s first order.
Tanks located on the front portion of the car’s roof hold the hydrogen in gaseous form. While the Urbino 18 hydrogen buses will have a 100 kW fuel cell module, the Urbino 12 hydrogen units will have a 70 kW set of fuel cells. Depending on the length of the bus, there may be two Solaris High Power batteries, each with a capacity of 30 kWh, which will help the fuel cell when there is a spike in the demand for electricity.
The interior of the bus will be equipped with advanced passenger communication technology, air conditioning, and cameras that can monitor the interior and the area around the bus. The driver will always be aware of how many passengers are currently on board with an automatic passenger counting system.
A roomy area has also been planned for the simultaneous transport of a wheelchair and a stroller, pushchair, or bicycle. Also, the cars will include USB ports for charging mobile devices.
The buses traveling to Aschaffenburg will also be outfitted with cutting-edge technology, such as cameras in place of mirrors or the MobileEye Shield+ system, which notifies the driver whenever an unexpected object is spotted nearby. Solaris’s bus fleet monitoring and management technology, eSConnect, will offer ongoing maintenance for the vehicles.
The Urbino 18 hydrogen model has drawn increasing interest in the European market since its release in the fall of 2022. Of the more than 200 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses that have been ordered so far, 100 already run on the streets of towns like Bolzano in Italy, Cologne and Wuppertal in Germany, the province of South Holland in the Netherlands, and Konin in Poland.
