37 mild hybrid buses for Municipal Transport Company in Cracow

This week Solaris and Cracow's public transport operator MPK Kraków signed a contract for the purchase of 37 mild-hybrid buses. The low-emission vehicles will be included in Kraków's fleet of already nearly 600 Solaris buses. Deliveries are scheduled for the first half of 2025.

The Municipal Transport Company of Cracow has selected Solaris as the supplier of 37 low-emission buses through a tender process. The modern, low-floor and air-conditioned 12-meter-long vehicles will replace the oldest vehicles in the Cracow’s municipal fleet. Some of them (25 buses) will be designed to serve city lines, while the remaining part (12 buses) will serve agglomeration routes. Deliveries are scheduled for the first half of 2025.

Vehicles of this mild hybrid type are an attractive proposition in the low-emission class of buses. The system applied in these vehicles consists of an internal combustion engine supported by an electric machine working as a generator of electric current. The machine takes the strain off the combustion engine, which results in fuel savings and lower exhaust emissions. The mild hybrid system is based on energy recovery technology, i. e. during braking energy is recovered and stored in an energy storage facility. It is used when the engine is under greater strain, e. g. during acceleration. At that moment, the machine acts as an electric motor. As a result, mild hybrids release fewer pollutants and are more environmentally friendly, while ensuring considerable flexibility.

Solaris buses have been present in Cracow for more than twenty years. During this time, almost 600 of the manufacturer's vehicles have hit the streets of this picturesque city. Importantly, a large number of them are zero-emission vehicles. The mild hybrid buses from the latest order will be Cracow's first Solaris vehicles with this propulsion system, but the product is already familiar to the operator - last summer four-week tests were carried out on Cracow's lines.

In the first photo, from left: Krzysztof Musiał, Sales Director, Solaris Bus & Coach, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Sales Director, Solaris Bus & Coach, Aneta Eichler, Macroregional Sales Director, Millenium Leasing Sp. z o.o., Rafał Świerszczyński, President of the Board of MPK SA in Krakow, Monika Zając, Regional Sales Director, Millenium Leasing Sp. z o.o., Mariusz Szałkowski, Vice President of the Board of MPK SA in Krakow.

Second photo: Krakow already has a fleet of nearly 600 Solaris.