The Polish city of Jaworzno, not too far away from Krakow, is well positioned to become Europe’s capital of battery-electric buses.
Jaworzno’s municipal transport companym PKM received its first battery-electric bus, a Solaris Urbino 12 electric, in 2015. It was not only the first battery bus in this city, but also the whole country. By spring 2018, the fleet of battery buses in Jaworzno had already grown to 23 vehicles. These are buses of three different sizes: there were midibuses of the “Solaris Urbino 8.9 electric” model as well as 12-meter buses of the “Solaris Urbino 12 electric” model and also articulated buses “Solaris Urbino 18 electric”.
PKM Jaworzno has ordered 5 Urbino 8,9 LE electric and 15 Urbino 12 electric. Both models are well known to the residents of Jaworzno. According to the contract the low-floor 9-meter Solaris vehicles will be delivered to the operator by the end of this year, whereas the 12-meter Urbino electric buses will join the former ones in the first half of 2021.
The new electric buses will use the newly developed Solaris High Energy batteries, which have a capacity of 160 kWh. PKM relies on “opportunity charging” with charging stations along the line. The electric buses connect with the grid at a charging station via pantograph that climbs on the roof of each bus. In via “plug in” the vehicles will also be reloaded overnight at the depot. The charging capacity is 190 kW.
Passengers will be able to enjoy USB charging sockets and Wi-Fi in the new electric buses.
It’s worth mentioning that Jaworzno will have 43 electric buses operating once completed the new order in mid-2021. Since the entire fleet of PKM consists of only 51 cars, 80% of all city buses in Jaworzno will already be electric buses.
02.04.2020
