The Polish manufacturer will supply 85 Solaris Urbino 12 buses to Milan in 2014. The contract signed yesterday with ATM Milan, worth 22 million euros, includes both the delivery and five-year servicing of the vehicles.
The Milan-based carrier announced a framework tender last September for a total of 250 buses to be purchased over the next four years. Solaris submitted the most favorable offer. In the framework agreement signed yesterday, the Polish manufacturer was committed to delivering the first 85 Solaris Urbino 12 units between August and December of this year. In addition to the sale, the transaction also includes servicing, which is to last for five years.
These will be the first buses from the Polish manufacturer in the Italian fashion capital, which will host the World Expo in 2015. The vehicles will be equipped with engines meeting the latest Euro 6 emission standard. Furthermore, they will feature an extensive passenger information system and electronic systems – including those that diagnose vehicle performance and automatically send information about potential faults to the depot.
– Winning the tender for the supply to Milan is an extremely prestigious order. Our offer competed with those of Italian manufacturers, yet the contracting authority chose buses from Poland. We see this as trust in our products as well as the quality and efficiency of our after-sales service – said Martin Gruber, member of the Solaris management board responsible for sales, after-sales, marketing, and quality assurance.
Vehicles of the Solaris brand have been present on the Italian market since 2004. To date, nearly 400 buses and trolleybuses are operating on the streets of Italian cities, including Rome, Genoa, Naples, Bari, and Cagliari in Sardinia.