Alex Trelinski
ELCHE has become the first municipality in Alicante province to incorporate a 100% electric-powered bus within its public transport fleet.
An additional seven electric buses operated by Avanza will enter service this summer.
Each bus costs €495,000 meaning a total investment of €4 million, with €1.6 million of the cost being funded by the European Union.
It’s estimated that each vehicle will reduce CO2 emissions by 80 tons per annum.
The first bus will be used across all of Elche’s bus routes and will act as a test ahead of the summer fleet expansion.
The new buses will join 26 hybrid vehicles that have already been brought into service or will soon be deployed as part of a council investment of €13 million.
Each of the fully-electric buses has three packs of two batteries that can charge up in four hours and provide travel for up to 200 kilometres.
Elche mayor, Carlos Gonzalez, said: “This is the biggest public investment in transport and sustainable mobility carried out for two decades.”
Gonzalez claimed that Elche would have ‘one of the most advanced public transport systems in the country’.
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