When the production of low-floor city buses started in Bolechowo near Poznań in 1996, the company employed 36 people. The first bus produced was intended for the Municipal Transport Company (MPK) in Poznań. By the end of 1996, a total of 56 vehicles had left the factory, which, in addition to Poznań, also went to Lublin. A few months later, buses from Bolechowo were also operating in Gdańsk, Kołobrzeg, Koszalin, Kraków, Legnica, Piła, Radom, Wałbrzych, and Warsaw. In 2000, the first foreign customers joined the group of recipients of buses with the “green dachshund” logo. The premiere export Solaris buses were the Urbino 15 for a municipal carrier from Ostrava, two Urbino 12s for the private company ABUS from Berlin, and 4 Urbino 15s for Košice in Slovakia.
Along with the list of customers, the company itself also grew, and today it employs over 2,000 people, producing nearly 1,200 buses and trolleybuses annually. Every day, up to 8 buses or trolleybuses leave the factory. To date, nearly 7,500 Solaris brand vehicles are operating in over 300 cities and 23 countries around the world.
The founders and owners of the company are Solange and Krzysztof Olszewski. The company introduced low-floor buses to the Polish market and quickly gained a leading position in this segment. Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. has been developing dynamically since the beginning of its operations and expanding its product range with subsequent models of buses based on state-of-the-art solutions.
Over 15 years of dynamic development, innovation has been one of the hallmarks of the Polish manufacturer. During this time, Solaris has designed and introduced 34 models of city buses, intercity buses, special-purpose buses, as well as trolleybuses and trams with various drive systems and lengths into its offer.
One of them was the first mass-produced hybrid-drive bus in Europe – the Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid, which started a hybrid revolution in European public transport. Today, the offer of vehicles with a diesel-electric drive includes 4 models with various hybrid systems and is the largest among all manufacturers. In 2009, Solaris presented its first rail vehicle, the Solaris Tramino tram. Serial production of trams began in 2010 with the fulfillment of an order for 40 units for MPK Poznań.
This year, Solaris is announcing another novelty. It will be a city bus powered by an electric motor.