Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) resolved the tender called to supply the green buses to continue with the renovation of the fleet and the progressive replacement of diesel vehicles, in accordance with the objective of adoption of clean fuels set by the 2025 Strategic Plan. The new buses, which will be put into service between 2022 and 2024, were awarded in six batches to five leading manufacturers, who will be responsible for supplying a total of 210 units, of which 166 will be added in 2022, the highest volume of the last 15 years.
The contracting of these 210 vehicles is the result of a bidding process that TMB launched between May and June and which represents a global investment of 112.5 million euros. In total there will be 78 pure electric buses, 108 natural gas hybrids and 24 double-decker hybrids for tourist transport.
Regarding the CNG hybrid buses, they will be supplied by MAN, which will deliver 23 articulated (including 4 that will be necessary in 2024) and 85 standards (of which 30 correspond to needs planned for 2024), for a value of 43.84 million euros. Hybrids that combine natural gas and electric motors are an efficient alternative to CNG-powered vehicles, which have to be retired when they are 15 years old.
This large contract is part of the TMB’s 2050 Strategic Plan to renew and environmentally update urban buses in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, in accordance with the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM). According to this plan, 508 eco-friendly buses (electric, CNG or hydrogen) are expected to be deployed –as well as the necessary refueling infrastructure to support them- between 2022 and 2025. With the 210 buses contracted now and the 69 received and incorporated throughout the summer, about 30% of the fleet will be renewed with green propulsions. The goal is that by the end of 2024 TMB’s fleet of standard and articulated vehicles will be made up only of electric, hybrid and natural gas vehicles (currently they constitute 70%).
Of the previous orders, the first eight hydrogen fuel cell and zero emissions buses are pending to arrive between the end of this year and the beginning of 2022, with which Barcelona will open another path, that of the use of green gases (renewable hydrogen and biogas), for the reduction of emissions and the decarbonization of public transport.
Source: TMB
