Solaris has been awarded a large order for 123 out of 131 electric buses in a government tender run by the Romanian Ministry for Public Works, Development, and Administration for seven local towns and cities.

The company is contracted to deliver 123 Solaris Urbino 12 electric (12-meter long) and charging infrastructure (123 40 kW depot chargers for overnight charging, and 36 300 kW pantograph chargers).

“Seven Romanian towns and cities are beneficiaries of a tender for 131 modern, zero-emission e-buses. Out of this pool, Solaris has been awarded an order for 123 12-metre vehicles destined for six locations: the towns and cities of Iași, Sibiu, Sighetu Marmației, Suceava, Târgu Mureș and Pitești.”

The value of this single order is €65 million ($77.5 million), which on average would be over €528,000 ($629,000) per vehicle, including the charging infrastructure.

Deliveries for all the locations should be gradually completed by the end of 2022.

Solaris is not a new player in Romania, as the company already delivered more than 300 vehicles in the country, including 40 Urbino 12 electric and over 100 trolleybuses.

With the additional order, the Polish bus manufacturer (part of the CAF Group) is strengthening its high position in the European EV market.

Other manufacturers also are trying to attract EV bus orders in Romania. Earlier this year, BYD announced its first order for nine 12-meter vehicles.

As we see more and more countries placing their first large EV bus orders (in three digits), we can clearly confirm that European cities are going electric. It will take quite some time to electrify 100% of the bus fleet, a decade or two maybe, depending on the country.