Solaris held its press conference 2023 this morning. The highlights: During 2022, the company sold 1492 vehicles and generated revenues of €696 million. The order book at the end of 2022 order book had 1,369 vehicles as backlog and 1,648 units as order intake. Battery vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, trolleybuses and hybrid buses, for the first time in the company’s history, exceeded more than half of the share in the sales mix and amounted to exactly 55%.
In the reported period Solaris delivered in total 401 units of battery electric buses and 42 hydrogen buses. Customers are from 18 countries. Major recipients of Solaris vehicles included, among other carriers, operators from Spain, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia as well as Austria and Czech Republic.
Contracts and deliveries
The largest Solaris contracts, partially or completely executed, in 2022 include:
2022 started for Solaris by signing a contract for the delivery of 183 battery buses. Unibuss AS, one of the biggest Norwegian carriers, has again opted for Solaris’ quality and contracted delivery of 183 Urbino 18 electric buses to the Norwegian capital. Such a large one-time order for electric buses was a breakthrough in the company’s history.
In 2022 the Italian operator ATM Milano has again placed an order for electric buses made by Solaris, going for another batch envisaged in the framework agreement for 250 vehicles. The first two batches, 140 electric Urbino buses in total, have already been delivered to the client. This time the operator has ordered another 75 units of Urbino 12 electric buses. At the same time, delivery of the additional 50 Trollino 18 articulated trolleybuses ordered to Milan began, of which ATM will thus use 80 units in the near future.
In 2022 Solaris has signed its first contract for the delivery of trolleybuses to the Dutch market. Dutch operator Hermes, part of Transdev/Connexxion, has signed a contract for the delivery of 10 Trollino 18 trolleybuses featuring our unique MetroStyle design. The vehicles will make their way to Arnhem in the first half of 2024 and they will be the first Solaris trolleybuses to be deployed in the Netherlands.
City of Poznań’s investments in green public transport are gathering pace. The city’s public transport operator MPK Poznań has purchased 25 innovative hydrogen-fuelled buses that will be supplied by Solaris Bus & Coach. This is by far the largest order for hydrogen Urbino hydrogen buses. MPK Poznań already boasts 58 electric Solaris buses, which account for nearly 20% of its fleet.
Another contract for the delivery of hydrogen buses was signed by Solaris in Italy. Solaris will deliver four Urbino 12 hydrogen buses to Venice. The Urbino 12 hydrogen buses will serve the residents of Venice and its surroundings thanks to contracts signed with carriers AVM Venezia and ACTV SPA Venezia, which provide public transport services in Venice as well as within the communes of Venice and Chioggia.
In 2022 Solaris has won a tender for the delivery of five hydrogen-powered Urbino 12 hydrogen buses to Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the island of Mallorca. This investment is part of the “Green Hyslan” project, financed with EU funds. The project objective seeks to promote the development of clean energy as part of initiatives aimed at combating climate change by 2050.
In the reported period, Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o. signed a contract with Latvian operator Rīgas Satiksme to deliver 35 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses. In addition, the contract can be extended via the supply of another 17 e-vehicles. The vehicles will arrive in Riga at the end of 2023.
On the very last days of 2022, Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o. and the Romanian Municipality of Bucharest (Municipiul Bucuresti) signed a contract for the supply of trolleybuses. The order is for 100 Solaris Trollino 12 trolleybuses. The vehicles will arrive in the Romanian capital at the end of 2024.
In 2022 city of Tallinn extends its order by another 50 Urbino CNG buses. Estonia’s largest public transport operator, Aktsiaselts Tallinna Linnatransport (TLT), which provides transport services in the Estonian capital, has ordered 20 Urbino 12 and 30 Urbino 18 CNG buses from Solaris. Tallinn has thus decided to exercise the option provided in the contract concluded in July 2021, under which 100 Solaris gas vehicles had already been purchased. Ince the order will be completed a total of 350 gas-powered Solaris buses will be running along the streets of Tallinn.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that in 2022 a consortium comprised of Solaris Bus & Coach, Solaris Czech and Škoda Electric submitted a winning bid in a tender concerning the delivery of 20 bi-articulated Trollino 24 trolleybuses, held by the Prague public transport operator Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy. ( https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/bi-articulated-trolleybuses-for-prague/ )
New technolgies on wehicles and infrastructure
Hydrogen technology has played a substantial role in the company’s development and sales strategy. In 2022 Solaris unveiled its Urbino 18 hydrogen bus and has already received the first order for two 18-metre articulated vehicles from the German carrier Stadtwerke Aschaffenburg Verkehrs GmbH. The 12-metre version of the Solaris Urbino hydrogen bus was launched in 2019 and has been delivered to almost 100 customers in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Poland. New deliveries to clients in Spain, France, and Slovakia, amongst other countries, will start soon. CEO Javier Iriarte mentioned during his speach that the articulated battery bus model Urbino 18 electric will see a technical relaunch with modifiactions including the increased battery capacity, batteries placed on the roof and today’s engine tower going to be substituted by a new distribution concept of the agrregates within the frame of the vehicle.
Investments in infrastructure include, among others, another 10,000 m2 of the new warehouse space, equipped with cutting-edge logistics systems and solutions, and the Charging Park, a unique charging station for e-vehicles. The Charging Park is an innovative, multi-bay charging station for battery-powered vehicles: e-buses, hydrogen buses and trolleybuses. It consists of eight charging bays, pantograph mechanisms, plug-in charging stations, a section of the trolleybus network, and a technical room. This is the first charging park supporting the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) functionality in Poland, i. e. a bidirectional energy flow between vehicles and the grid. This technology makes it possible to flexibly charge and discharge buses.
