Volvo Buses receives order for 90 electric buses from Belgium

Volvo Buses has secured its largest ever order for complete solutions for electric bus traffic. The Belgian cities of Charleroi and Namur have together ordered 90 Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid buses as well as 12 charging stations. The buyer is public transport company TEC Group. The charging stations will be delivered by ABB.

The order from TEC Group covers 55 buses for Charleroi and another 35 buses for Namur. ABB will supply four charging stations to Charleroi and eight charging stations for Namur. Delivery and installation will get under way this autumn. After the delivery, the TEC Group will have ordered in total 101 Volvo electric hybrids and 15 ABB charging stations.

“This is extremely gratifying! The order is a new milestone in our electromobility drive and confirms the competitiveness of our offer. We can see that more and more of the world’s cities are choosing electrified city bus traffic in order to deal with poor air quality and noise. The common interface for fast charging of buses and trucks, OppCharge, is gaining ground. The use by many suppliers of a common interface will facilitate the transition to electromobility in the world’s cities,” said Volvo Buses President Håkan Agnevall.

The customer and operator, TEC Group, previously ordered 11 Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrids along with charging stations for Namur, a system that became operational in January this year. Once the 35 new buses take to the roads, 90 per cent of Namur’s public transport will be electrified.

“As public transport company, the TEC Group is very proud to be a leader in the increase of the energy efficiency of its fleet. This strategic investment will participate in the improvement of the quality of life in the main city centers, and will allow the Walloon Region to achieve its environmental goals. The hybrid technology is the best compromise between the operational constraints and the energy efficiency for urban buses today”, said Vincent Peremans, CEO TEC Group.

 Volvo’s electric hybrids and ABB’s fast-charging systems are based on a common interface known as OppCharge, whereby the charging stations can also be used by electrified buses from other vehicle manufacturers. OppCharge is now being implemented as a common interface in more than 12 countries.

The Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid operates quietly and exhaust emission-free on electricity for about 70 per cent of its route. Battery recharging takes 3 to 4 minutes with so called opportunity charging. Energy consumption is about 60 per cent lower than for a corresponding diesel bus. Volvo’s electric hybrids have already entered service in cities such as Gothenburg, Stockholm, Hamburg, Luxemburg, Namur and Curitiba.