Volvo Buses has secured an order of 23 fully electric buses from public transport company Arriva in the Netherlands. The buses will operate in the city of Leiden in the province of South Holland.
Multinational public transport company Arriva, with operations in 14 countries across Europe, is one of the leaders in the introduction of alternative propulsion technologies. In 2011, the company was among the first in Europe to order hybrid buses from Volvo for the city of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. Now they have placed an order for 23 fully electric buses from Volvo. The order was signed June 28 at a ceremony in conjunction with the Volvo Ocean Race, which finished in the Hague this week.
The new fully electric buses from Volvo, with a battery capacity of 200 kWh, will operate in the city of Leiden in the province of South Holland. Deliveries will take place between Q1 and Q3 in 2019.
“We are delighted to establish our first large-scale system of fully electric buses in the Netherlands in cooperation with Arriva, a pioneer in sustainable city transportation. The order is yet another example where also smaller cities are shifting to sustainable, electric bus systems as a means of solving the problems with air quality and noise in the city,” said Håkan Agnevall, President Volvo Buses.
“This is a big step in making public transport more sustainable in the province of Zuid-Holland. With shared sustainability ambitions, the province of Zuid-Holland, Arriva and Volvo are able to make the public transport of a complete city emission free in one go,” said Anne Hettinga, CEO Arriva the Netherlands.
The fully electric buses are being sold as a complete turnkey package whereby Volvo takes care of all vehicle maintenance at a fixed monthly cost.
The buses will be fast-charged using four charging stations which will be delivered by ABB. The charging stations will be based on an open interface – OppCharge – which means they can be used by other electrified bus makes too. Energy consumption for Volvo’s electric buses is about 80 percent lower than for corresponding diesel buses.
Volvo’s fully electric buses have previously been ordered by cities in countries such as Sweden, Britain, Luxemburg and Poland. In addition to the all-electric Volvo 7900 Electric, the Volvo Buses range of electrified vehicles includes hybrid buses and electric hybrid (plug-in hybrid) models. All told the company has sold more than 4000 electrified Volvo buses the world over.
