In a few days’ time, a new fleet of fully electric, zero-emission buses will be on the roads of Verona. Ten vehicles, some 12 metres long, others 8 metres, with an autonomy of 350 kilometres, will stop at Porta Vescovo bus stop station.
The future all-electric fleet of 100 vehicles will arrive by 2026. The cost of each 8-metre vehicle, manufactured in Turkey, plus one destined for the Municipality in the Province (about 40 min jouney), Legnago, is 300.000 euros. The longer ones will be made using Chinese technology and will cost 430.000 euros each. The Municipality of Verona, which took part in a ministerial tender three years ago, received 10 million euros from the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Mobility. In addition, the Province provided 1.4 million euros through regional funds.
An important moment that has brought enormous benefits in terms of reducing harmful emissions and that is now being consolidated with the switch to electric vehicles. In fact, the first 11 e-buses are the vanguard of the future city fleet, which will be expanded by around 30 vehicles over the next two years. With the construction of the new trolleybus line, it is conceivable that within the next three years 75 per cent of public transport in Verona will be powered by clean energy.
“This is the first step towards more sustainable vehicles“, says Massimo Bettarello, ATV president (Azienda Trasporti Verona, company for Public Transport of Verona) “Soon we will have another 16 vehicles, by spring next year, and the aim is to have a fully electric fleet of over 100 vehicles by 2026, including the trolleybus. For the suburban area, however, the procurement of gas and partly Euro 6 diesel vehicles has begun, as the technology is not yet mature enough for electric vehicles to travel long distances“. “We are about to take one of many steps towards sustainability in order to improve the air quality of our city“, underlines Mayor of Verona, Damiano Tommasi “We are still one step behind many other cities and therefore more resources are needed in this direction“.
More information about buses connections in Verona, in English, HERE
