The contract is the second major order from a North American customer announced by Solaris since it laid out its strategy for entering the market at UITP 2023.

Schmitz stated that the two companies will combine their “expertise in designing and building superstructures on rigid chassis, including tarpaulin, boxes, and refrigerated solutions”.

This investment enables the company to respond to the growing demand for electric and hybrid powertrains in Europe. The Tczew facility complements Eaton’s North American testing centre located in Mashall, Michigan.

This site has an annual capacity of 20,000 HVAC systems per year and was purpose-built to service the increasing demands for HVAC systems in electric buses and coaches.

The companies are exploring a potential collaboration in overnight charging infrastructure for European e-trucks. By 2030, there are expected to be 3.5 million e-trucks in Europe, but in order to sustain large amounts of zero-emission vehicles on the roads, Europe needs a dense network of charging infrastructure.

Solaris has agreed to supply up to sixteen buses to the King County Metro Transit Department, the public transit authority which serves King County and the city of Seattle in the state of Washington.

The vehicle in question is an articulated ‘Urbino 18’ battery electric bus, one of fifty ordered in 2023 by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, the state-owned company which manages public transportation in the German capital.

‘Terberg Tractors Polska’ will be based in a former truck dealership which is now occupied by sister company ‘Terberg Matec Polska’, which sells Terberg’s refuse collection equipment.

The deal, understood to be worth KRW13trn (USD9.4bn), comes a year after the two companies decided to scrap plans to build a battery manufacturing joint venture in Turkey due to weakening demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe.

The ‘Urbino 24’ double-articulated buses will serve on bus rapid transit routes in the city.

Transdev says it will deploy them in the Province of Utrecht in the central Netherlands.

The new highly automated 16,000 sqm battery pack manufacturing facility produces lithium-ion batteries for heavy-duty applications.