Solaris Urbino 15 LE Electric Bus Wins 2022 Sustainable Bus Award

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The Solaris Urbino 15 LE electric bus has won the Sustainable Bus Award for 2022.

The Sustainable Bus Award, which is an international competition for the most innovative and sustainable buses and coaches, was started to promote the idea of sustainable development in public transport. The program also aims to create a positive image for urban transport as a key role in climate change and sustainability.

This year, the grand prize in the Urban category went to Solaris for its Urbino 15 LE electric bus. The jury was made up of representatives from several trade magazines all over Europe. These included:

  • Mobilités Magazine (France)
  • Busfahrt (Germany)
  • AUTOBUS (Italy)
  • Infotrucker (Romania)
  • Carril Bus (Spain)
  • Revija Tranzit (Slovenia)
  • Bus And Coach Professional (UK)

The award ceremony gala was hosted by the editor-in-chief at Vado e Torno Edizioni Srl, Fabio Zammaretty, and the editor at Sustainable Bus, Riccardo Shiavo.

One key area that the jury focused on was the three-axle structure of the Solaris Urbino 15 LE electric bus. This design helps to provide driving stability as well as comfort. Another neat feature of the electric bus is its ability to be adapted for both city and intercity transport.

Other highlights the jury found innovative were the equipment installed in the vehicle, such as electronic safety features and real-time fleet monitoring. The electric bush is also fitted with six packs of traction batteries that have a total capacity of 470 kWh. These can be charged by both plug-in and pantograph chargers.

During the ceremony, Mateusz Figaszewski, E-mobility Development and Market Intelligence Director at Solaris Bus & Coach, said,

“We feel honored that our Solaris Urbino 15 LE electric bus has been recognized by the jury of this prestigious competition. Innovative public transport opens up completely new possibilities to us: clean air, quiet streets, and no unpleasant noise. This is becoming a reality for an increasing number of towns and cities that are both people- and environmentally friendly. We are very glad that Solaris’s contribution to safe, publicly accessible, sustainable transport is increasingly being recognized.”

Along with Solaris, Isuzu and MAN also won awards. The Isuzu Kendo 13 CNG and Man Lion’s Coach were the other two winning vehicles.

UITP Senior Director Knowledge and Innovation Umberto Guida touched upon the importance of public transport for achieving liveable cities but also noted that the bus sector is already helping to reduce emissions from transportation. He spoke of last year’s exponential growth and called it unstoppable.

“We cannot achieve liveable cities without public transport. European and national policies are pointing at the decarbonization of bus fleets, although, we should underline, the bus sector was already helping to reduce the emissions from transport activities. We expect an increasing number of registrations of clean buses in the coming years in Europe. In 2020 we witnessed an exponential growth, with 7,500 orders of electric, gas-powered and hybrid buses. It is an unstoppable growth. We also expect totally new products coming to the market, meaning platforms designed specifically for electric drives, using new, clean materials and clean industrial processes. We see that also the way vehicles are being developed and produced is changing.”

Inge Buytaert, Busworld Marketing & Communication Officer shared how sustainability is becoming increasingly important and what Busworld learned over the pandemic in regards to B2B events and seeing products in person.

“We see that sustainability is becoming increasingly important, and this is a great opportunity for the bus and coach sector, as we are already a sustainable sector. I think we should have a louder voice, announcing together both to policymakers and to the general public that we are a sustainable industry.

“In the pandemic, we learned that B2B events need networking and the possibility of seeing and touching products in person. We will use digital tools to enhance the physical experience. Now it’s the Sustainable Bus Awards hosting us, but we will make sure that in 2023 Sustainable Bus Awards will be handed over at Busworld again.

It’s important to recognize bus manufacturers that play key roles in sustainability. Solaris recently announced a “Charging Park” for electric buses, and I hope that other companies and transportation industries here in the US will follow suit. It would be nice to see more proactive approaches to sustainability in my own city.


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Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider