The district-owned Rhein-Erft Verkehrsgesellschaft (REVG) operates in the west of Cologne 46 routes with 111 buses. In addition to its own buses, there are also vehicles from subcontractors operating on behalf of REVG – including DB subsidiary Busverkehr Rheinland (BVR) from Düsseldorf.
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All REVG buses to date have been diesel buses. Three MAN buses, the youngest in the fleet to date, are ‘efficient hybrid’: they generate electricity when braking, which they use to restart after the next stop. This gives them a diesel saving of around 16 per cent.
In 2021, the district council decided that the district’s own transport service should be purely electric from 2030. The decision was made in favour of electric buses with hydrogen fuel cells. In the same year, the first two hydrogen test buses arrived at REVG: both a Van Hool and a Solaris. As a result of the test, 26 ‘New A 330 FC’ were ordered from Van Hool, which were to be delivered in 2024.
Unfortunately, Van Hool went bankrupt at the beginning of 2024. The order had to be re-awarded – Solaris was chosen. Naturally with a corresponding delay, as Solaris first had to plan the 26 vehicles for REVG into its production programme.
The first two ‘Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen’ arrived at REVG in November 2024. The 24 other buses from the order will be in Germany in the course of 2025.
REVG’s first two Solaris hydrogen buses, numbered 2420 and 2421, which arrived last November, are three-door vehicles. The other 24 buses that are now arriving haver the fleet numbers 2422 to 2445 and are of two-door design.
The buses will be used freely on all REVG routes. This is the advantage of a bus that does not require recharging en route: it can travel anywhere without the need for additional infrastructure. However, there is one exception: the hydrogen buses will not run on the two express bus lines SB 91 (Brühl – Hürth – Frechen – Pulheim – Dormagen) and SB 92/93 (Wesseling – Brühl – Erftstadt – Kerpen – Bergheim – Elsdorf) – which will run as a continuous line, but will change line numbers en route. REVG reports a range of 350 kilometres for its hydrogen buses, which is completely sufficient for normal scheduled services, but the two express bus lines achieve a higher mileage per day, and the hydrogen buses do not yet offer this.
The fuel cells in the Solaris come from Ballard in Canada and have an output of 75 kW. The buffer batteries of the ‘Solaris High Power’ type have a capacity of 10 kWh. This shows that the hydrogen Solaris do not have to ‘lug around’ large and heavy batteries. Their hydrogen tank consists of 5 composite pressurised cylinders, each holding 312 l of hydrogen, so the bus has a total of 1560 l of hydrogen on board when fully fuelled.
The front axle has independent wheel suspension, while Solaris installs an electric portal axle from ZF as the drive axle, which delivers a total of 250 kW (equivalent to 340 hp) to the road. The buses’ electric motors are partly supplied by TSA (Traktions-Systeme Austria) and partly by ZF (Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen).
Manufacturer Maximator supplied the hydrogen refuelling station. With its depot in the Kerpen district of Türnich, REVG is a tenant of the well-known haulage company Freund, and Freund also provides the hydrogen refuelling station. REVG: ‘It is ensured that our buses can refuel with hydrogen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means they are always ready for use.’
The Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen is 12,000 mm long, 2,550 mm wide and 3,300 mm high. In the three-door version, it can carry 85 passengers, 31 of whom can be seated. The two-door version can even offer 35 passengers the comfort of a seat.
The Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen has a gross vehicle weight of 19,200 kg.
