Solaris Debuts Urbino 40 Electric, Its First Bus Built for North America

Polish bus manufacturer Solaris has taken the wraps off its first vehicle engineered specifically for North American operators. The battery-electric Urbino 40 made its global debut at the APTA TRANSform & EXPO in Chicago, marking the company’s formal push into an overseas market for the first time in its history. A longer articulated sibling, the Urbino 60 electric, is slated to arrive shortly after.

The model naming follows a straightforward logic: the Urbino 40 measures 12.44 metres (just over 40 feet), while the Urbino 60 stretches to 18.59 metres, or roughly 60 feet. For European observers, these two vehicles correspond closely to the Urbino 12 electric and Urbino 18 electric already sold on the continent. Solaris says it needed an entirely new platform to satisfy US regulatory requirements, with a technically permissible gross vehicle weight of 20.3 tonnes for the solo bus and 32.1 tonnes for the articulated version.

Propulsion comes from either a single 230 kW or 300 kW motor in the two-axle Urbino 40, while the three-axle Urbino 60 ships with a pair of 230 kW motors as standard. Energy is stored in roof-mounted battery packs rated at 528 kWh and 704 kWh respectively. Onboard equipment includes an integrated battery thermal management system, an efficient HVAC setup, in-house battery integration and vehicle monitoring software, plus a suite of driver assistance systems. Solaris has not yet published an official range figure for either model, noting only that the Urbino 40 is designed to handle demanding daily duty cycles and meet transit agencies’ range expectations.

The North American expansion reflects a strategy set in motion by CEO Javier Iriarte, who took the helm at the start of 2023 and signalled plans to enter the US market by 2026, leaning on the existing sales and production footprint of parent company CAF. Solaris has belonged to the CAF Group since 2018, and management has been pursuing synergies between its bus and rail operations ever since. Solaris promises local manufacturing and dedicated customer support for North American buyers, though it has not disclosed where the buses will be assembled.

Initial deliveries are headed to King County Metro in Seattle, which has ordered four buses with an option for twelve more, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which is taking six vehicles as a starting point. Both agencies have requested a mix of solo and articulated buses. Solaris is also supplying 107 trolleybuses to TransLink in Vancouver, Canada — a substantially larger commitment. To date the manufacturer says it has delivered 30,000 vehicles across 34 countries, with an increasing share of that output being zero-emission buses, hydrogen fuel cell models and trolleybuses.