Historical investment in 164 hybrid buses for Valencia

The new buses will begin arriving as early as next year

Valencia will soon renew its transport fleet with sustainable and more convenient buses. With 164 new hybrid vehicles, the Spanish city will significantly diversify the communal service in a very short time.

The historical investment of 49.6 million euros was made possible thanks to an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which finances 50% of the purchase at optimal conditions, with an interest of practically 0%. The preferential credit was assured thanks to the optimal financial management of the City Council, explains the Councillor for Sustainable Mobility of the City Council of Valencia, Giuseppe Grezzi.

As we wrote earlier, the EIB provided funding for the renewal of the transport fleet of Barcelona. The loan for the Catalan capital, however, was considerably higher - at 74 million euros for 116 new electric buses, 63 hybrids and 75 using latest generation compressed natural gas.

The new buses will begin arriving between 2020 and 2021. This way, by July of 2021 the bus fleet will have an average age of 7.5 years, compared with the more than 13 years it had in 2015, after years without any purchases of new units. The first 35 buses will arrive in the first half of next year and the remainder will be received on a weekly basis until mid-2021.

On the path towards sustainability

In the specifications, a guarantee of maintenance by the awarded company is introduced, through which the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) will avoid significant problems or breakdowns. In addition, the personnel will be able to know the new vehicles better.

With this new addition, a total of 126 buses have been put into operation since 2015 - 124 more than during the term of the 2011-2015 legislature, explains the municipality. In 2018 36 articulated hybrids were launched, which began operating in 2019 and in June of this year - 12 new standard hybrids.

This means that by July 2021 EMT will have renewed more than half of its fleet, with vehicles boasting hybrid or less polluting technology benefitting citizens, the environment and air quality.