In 2013, Solaris broke its previous record for vehicle sales and, at the same time, maintained its position as the leader of the Polish city bus market for the eleventh consecutive year. It was also a record-breaking period for the Polish manufacturer in foreign markets.
Sales
In the company’s eighteen-year history, it has sold such a large number of vehicles for the first time. In 2013, this totaled 1,302 buses, trolleybuses, and trams. The previous best year was 2011, when 1,205 vehicles left the factory in Bolechowo. The record-high sales in the past twelve months were driven by both deliveries to domestic customers and high export sales.
In Poland, Solaris sold a total of 292 vehicles last year. This figure consisted of low-floor Urbino city buses (251 units), Trollino trolleybuses (36 units), and InterUrbino intercity buses (5 units). In addition to deliveries to existing customers, the company supplied buses to Kętrzyn, Gorlice, and Przemyśl for the first time.
The sale of 287 Urbino city buses and Trollino trolleybuses allowed Solaris to take first place in the market for city vehicles over 8 tonnes GVW in Poland for the eleventh year in a row. In this segment, Solaris captured a 53% market share last year.
The year 2013 was also record-breaking in terms of export sales, which amounted to as many as 1,010 units. Traditionally, for several years now, the largest number of the company’s foreign customers have come from Germany, where a total of 210 Solaris vehicles were sold. This result gave the Polish manufacturer third place in the German city bus market for another consecutive year. In September last year, the two-thousandth Solaris entered German roads.
The Serbian market also had a significant share in last year’s export sales. This was the result of fulfilling a large contract for the delivery of 200 articulated buses for a carrier from Belgrade.
A completely new export country for Solaris in 2013 was Israel. A carrier from Nazareth, United Bus Services, purchased a total of 116 Urbino city buses and InterUrbino intercity buses from Bolechowo.
– The record-high sales last year are primarily the result of the trust placed in us by our long-term customers. We have fulfilled the majority of contracts in cities where vehicles of our brand were already operating. This is the best proof of the quality of our products and good service. As you can see, customers return to us because the Solaris brand enjoys a good reputation among them – comments Solange Olszewska, CEO of Solaris, on the record results of 2013.
Trams
The company’s undoubted successes in 2013 certainly include the delivery of five low-floor vehicles to Jena. For the first time in history, a company from Poland has delivered trams to a German customer.
The Tramino Jena was also recognized during the TRAKO International Railway Fair in Gdańsk, winning the Medal of the President of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and the Prof. Jan Podoski award, granted by the IGKM.
Solaris’s next foreign contract for the delivery of trams will take place in 2014, when the company will deliver a total of 18 rail vehicles to Braunschweig.
New products
Last year, Solaris presented buses meeting the Euro 6 standard, which came into force at the beginning of 2014. The company is well prepared for this change and has been offering its customers a full range of products meeting the latest legal requirements regarding exhaust emissions for several months now.
A product novelty presented by Solaris in 2013 was an electric bus model with an innovative battery charging system. A pantograph mounted on the roof, combined with a charging station suspended above the road, guarantees fast, maintenance-free recharging of the batteries. The solution, submitted to the Patent Office, won, among other things, a gold medal at the Kielce Trade Fair.
The company can also boast its first commercial successes regarding electric buses. Last year, the first vehicle of this type was sold to Klagenfurt, Austria. In turn, this year, five electric Solaris buses will be delivered to Braunschweig, Germany. This will include one twelve-meter bus and four articulated buses. Interestingly, all vehicles will be charged inductively. Solaris will hand over the next two electric buses to a carrier from Düsseldorf, and another to a company from Vasteras, Sweden. This year, there will also be a delivery of two articulated electric buses to the Hochbahn Hamburg company. These vehicles will be additionally equipped with hydrogen fuel cells to increase the range of the buses.
– We are observing with great optimism the growing interest of carriers in purchasing electric buses. Last year, this already translated into concrete orders. The year 2014 looks even better in this respect. I believe that in the coming years, the share of completely emission-free buses powered by electricity in our sales will be increasingly larger – predicts Solange Olszewska.
In 2014, Solaris plans to introduce more new products. Undoubtedly, the most important of the premieres will be the long-awaited presentation of the new Solaris. The innovative project will be shown during the September IAA fair in Hanover. The new, lighter bus construction, with a dynamic design, will be successively implemented into production and will replace the current generation of Solaris brand vehicles in the coming years. The company also plans to present a vehicle for a completely new segment of the bus market later this year.
– The year 2013 was record-breaking in terms of sales, which makes us extremely happy. We are currently working to ensure that the coming years are just as good for the company. The forecasts look optimistic and are based, among other things, on the number of orders we already have in our portfolio for this year and the coming years. This year, we will fulfill, among others, a contract for the delivery of 100 buses for Izmir, and in the next few years, we will deliver a total of 300 vehicles to Riga. As always, we will also build our order portfolio with smaller contracts, which are equally important for our company – announces Solange Olszewska.
In the coming weeks, the 10,000th vehicle will leave the factory in Bolechowo. This will be a significant event for Solaris.