Solaris wins 322 CNG buses and 110 mild hybrid in Rome

Solaris has won both lots of the tender called by Giubileo 2025 spa for a total of 110 hybrid articulated city buses and as many as 322 CNG vehicles, of which 244 are to be supplied immediately plus 78 are subject to the approval of ATAC‘s new Economic and Financial Plan. The news is reported by Autobusweb.

The awards have not yet been announced, but the data were announced by the commissions at the tender session.

Solaris wins over 400 buses in Rome

It was a very heartfelt competition, especially for the insiders who were able to witness the challenge between three giants: Iveco Bus, Mercedes and Solaris. Solaris won the whole pot, betting on a competitive price of full service, thus winning a tender it had been waiting for for a long time. Specifically, the Polish manufacturer got the better of the CNG vehicle lot by challenging Iveco Bus. Notable absentee, on this specific lot, was Industria Italiana Autobus, which, thanks to Consip, had carpeted the eternal city in recent years with its 12-metre gas-powered vehicles. In fact, even Solaris’ bid sounds like an almost surprise; the Polish manufacturer had in the past year kept well away from tenders for gas-powered buses. The reason? To leave room for the production of electric buses: in the first half of 2023, in fact, Solaris is (again) the market leader for e-buses in Europe.

Mild hybrid buses: Solaris vs Iveco Bus vs Daimler Buses

But let us come to the second lot, focused on mild hybrid technology. Here, as already mentioned, the competition was between Iveco Bus, Mercedes and Solaris. With Mercedes having an important supply of Citaro hybrid in Rome, Iveco Bus with a historic relationship and Solaris which, specifically, had not yet submitted an offer on an Italian tender on this technology. As they say in these cases: good the first!