Östersund expands electric bus operations with Scania Citywide
2 NOVEMBER 2020
Scania will deliver more electric city buses to Vy Buss for their operations in Östersund, a city with a population of 64,000 in mid Sweden. The ten new-generation 12.3-metre Scania Citywide LF buses will join Vy’s fleet of electric Scania buses that have been in traffic there since 2017.
“We were early in establishing a charging infrastructure for electric cars and are now continuing with electric buses,” says Anne Sörensson, Green Traffic Project Manager at the City of Östersund. “We view this as essential in our aim to become fossil-free and energy efficient by 2030.”
Norwegian publicly-owned Vy Group is one of the largest transport operators in the Nordic countries. Together with Scania, Vy has operated one electrified bus line in Östersund as a field test.
"The traffic runs smoothly"
“This test has been exciting both for us and Scania and we’ve learned a lot,” says Andreas Ehrenborg, Technical Director at Vy. “The traffic has been running smoothly, regardless if the temperature has been 30 degrees plus or minus. The buses are reliable and electrification has been favourable for the work environment of our drivers and not least for Östersund’s residents. We look forward to continued collaboration with Scania.”
Passenger surveys carried out by the city show that 78 percent are highly satisfied with their electric bus journeys and 66 percent rate travelling with electric buses as better or much better than trips with conventional buses.
Seven of the buses will be in traffic from July 2021 and the remaining three in summer 2022. One-third of all city bus operations in Östersund will then be electrified. Other city bus lines are operated on renewable biofuels.
