Ebusco has signed a new contract with Dutch public transport operator Qbuzz for the delivery of up to 63 buses. The order involves 45 Ebusco 3.0 12-metre buses and 18 Ebusco 3.0 18-metre buses, four of which are under option. The buses will hit the road in the provinces Groningen and Drenthe in 2024.
Qbuzz will deploy the buses on behalf of transport authority OV-bureau Groningen-Drenthe, responsible for the public transport in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe. The order for Ebsuco is part f a large scale order of 158 ebuses issued by the OV-bureau Groningen Drenthe. The other two winners are Van Hool and Daimler Buses. The 12-metre Ebusco 3.0 will mainly be used for regional transport, while the 18-metre buses will operate under the Q-link flag for inter urban transprt. Both variants will be equipped with an extra-large battery pack (>500 kWh). Qbuzz is one of the five largest regional transport operators in the Netherlands. With its network of buses, trams and trains, the operator moves around 85 million passengers from A to B every year. In Groningen-Drenthe Qbuzz has a fleet of around 400 buses, which will now partially be replaced by up to 63 Ebusco 3.0 buses. Ebusco has been working with Qbuzz for
several years now and has already provided the operator with circa 130 electric buses. Under the Qbuzz umbrella, the Ebusco 2.2 buses are already operating in the cities of Utrecht, Groningen and Dordrecht, amongst others. Steven van der Burg, Sales Director at Ebusco, explains: “We are extremely proud that Qbuzz has once again chosen Ebusco.” In the Groningen-Drenthe region, the operator already has 60 Ebusco buses in operation, covering around 100,000 km per bus annually. As a result, with the Ebusco 2.2 fleet in Groningen-Drenthe Qbuzz has already achieved savings of roughly 5,500,000 kg CO2 and 9,500,000 kg nitrogen per year. With the Ebusco 3.0, Qbuzz will reduce its carbon footprint even further. Dirk Huzeling, Creative Bid Manager at Qbuzz: “With the Ebusco 2.2 buses we already drive between 350 and 375 electric kilometres per day. We are very pleased to now also add the Ebusco 3.0 to our fleet.”